Where You Want To Be
by rollinsthefreeshooter
Summary: Dean gets his oldest friend a job working backstage. Working there with her best friend is a dream, but Seth Rollins throws her a curveball and she's having trouble remembering that she's supposed to hate him.
1. You Look Like My Next Mistake

**A/N** : This was originally supposed to be a one-shot but it kind of just keeps snowballing. MA for eventual explicit content.

* * *

Chloe Lockett flashed her backstage pass at the security guard, prompting him to move aside so she could go inside the arena. "Which way to catering?" she asked as she pushed open the door.

"Make the first left, first door there," he told her, moving back into place in front of the door.

Chloe let the door shut behind her, following the man's instructions and turning left. The door to catering was open and the room was teeming with people, but she found her mark almost immediately. ' _Messy hair, leather jacket, you don't change much do you Ambrose?_ '

She ducked down so her mouth was right next to the man's ear. "Long time no see, Dean-o."

"Told you not to call me that," he said sternly, before reaching behind him and pulling her down on the couch into a hug. "Hey squirt."

His hug was crushing and she returned it just as tight, wrapping her arms around his middle. "I missed you, you jerk. You oughta come home more often."

Dean broke the hug to gesture around him. "Why would I do that when I could be here eatin' mediocre food an' gettin' my ass kicked every day?"

A deep voice came from another couch behind Chloe. "You gonna introduce me or what Ambrose?"

Dean turned her around to face the new speaker, who had long black hair and arms covered in tattoos. "This is Chloe Lockett, one of my oldest friends from home-"

"You wouldn't know it by how often he calls, though," she interrupted, earning an elbow in the ribs from Dean.

The man offered his hand to Chloe. "Roman Reigns. Nice to meet you."

"I know," she smiled, shaking his hand. "Who you are, I mean. That sounded bad. It's good to meet you too."

Roman laughed, leaning back into the cushions. "I've never seen you around, what brings you here?"

"Oh, just thought I'd finally visit Dean when he was nearby," she said at the same time that Dean said "She's here for a job."

Chloe turned to look at him. "Say that again?"

He shrugged. "You said you were between jobs, you're good at dealing with people, we're down a production manager. Someone to know the schedule, make sure everyone is where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there, figure out how to accommodate last minute changes in the schedule if someone gets sick or injured. Keep the show from getting fucked up and disappointing thousands of people, basically."

"No pressure then, right?" she sighed, biting her lip. "If you'd told me about this before I would have brought my resume and worn something other than a leather jacket and shorts."

"Don't worry about it," he waved his hand lazily through the air. "I'll take you over to the person in charge of hiring production, talk you up, you'll be fine."

She rolled her eyes. "Well if I got you to vouch for me how can I lose?"

Dean was already standing up, pulling her up with him. "C'mon kiddo, time's a-wastin', I don't have a lot of downtime before I have to go kick ass."

Chloe frowned. "If I can't call you Dean-o you don't get to call me kiddo." She turned to move towards the exit and thudded into someone solid. She looked up and saw dark hair marred by a large blond chunk on one side. "You're-"

"Outta the way, Rollins, we got places to be," Dean said, his voice icier than it had been a minute ago.

Seth Rollins stood his ground, crossing his arms as he looked down at Chloe. "Who's your friend, Ambrose? Didn't think you had many of those left."

"More'n you're gonna have if you don't move," Dean growled, eyeing Seth's security detail. By that point Roman had stood up to join them, and Chloe stood there in silence while the men had a staredown.

Seth didn't seem to like his odds, backing up and clearing the way. "Yeah, sure. Your friends don't concern me anyway. Later, princess."

Chloe glared at him as Dean guided her out of the room, Roman close behind them.

"Prick," Dean spat as they walked towards the management office. "I oughta go back there and wring his neck."

"It's not worth it, man," Roman said solemnly. "We'll get our shot at him later. No point starting more fights than necessary."

"My fists disagree," Dean muttered, cracking his knuckles.

Chloe stayed quiet. She knew about Seth's betrayal of The Shield, turning on his brothers and joining up with the Authority to get ahead. It had worked – he was the WWE Champion now. But she didn't think anything was worth betraying your friends that way.

"Here we are," Dean said, stopping outside of a door marked **Management**. "C'mon Chlo, let's get you hired. He opened the door and gently pushed her inside, following behind her. "Nate? This is Chloe Lockett, she's here to save the show and wow you as the new production manager."

Nate looked up, smiling at Chloe. He was one of the older people she'd seen that night, his hair graying and his brown eyes kind. "Nice to meet you, Chloe," he said, extending his hand to shake hers and motioning for her to take a seat.

"You too. I pulled up a copy of my resume on my phone – sorry for the unorthodox delivery, the job proposition was kind of sprung on me at the last minute," she told him, passing him her phone. She slid into a less natural speech pattern that she used professionally, proper college-English without swearing that she'd picked up as a communications major, different from the way her and Dean usually spoke.

"No worries, we're not the most orthodox company in the world," Nate smiled at her before glancing at her resume. "This all looks good... lots of project management experience... how are you at dealing with difficult personalities?"

"Are you forgettin' who brought her in here?" Dean asked, leaning against the wall as opposed to sitting next to Chloe.

Chloe looked at him in horror, but Nate just laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's as good an answer to that question as any. Well, we're in a real pickle, our last guy quit at the last minute so that he could go 'find himself' by traveling the world, so we'll give you a trial run tonight. If everything goes well we'll discuss a more permanent contract at the end of the night; sound good?"

"That sounds great," Chloe said happily. "Thank you so much, I appreciate the opportunity."

"Here's a schedule for the night, along with a map of the arena, a temporary employee badge, and a headset so you can contact the rest of the production staff and let them know when you're sending people their way," Nate said, handing a few things to her. "Tonight should be a relatively easy night – just check in with everyone fifteen minutes before they're supposed to go on stage and make sure they're on schedule. Good luck tonight, Ms. Lockett."

"Chloe, please. Thanks again – I won't let you down," she smiled, shaking his hand again and getting up to leave.

"Told you you'd be fine," Dean said as they exited the office, mussing up her hair. "I gotta split, alright? Time for me to go out and do my thing."

Chloe nodded, putting on her headset and looking at her schedule. "I'll catch up with you later. Don't fuck up my first day by being late, yeah?"

He saluted her before heading to the locker room to change. Dean was supposed to be going up against Bray Wyatt, so she went off to find him, hoping that he was in a locker room instead of holed up somewhere weird.

* * *

The night was almost over and everything was running smoothly. The last match, between Randy Orton and Seth, was set to start soon. Chloe had already tracked down Randy, who dazzled her with a smile and told her that he would head over shortly. Randy was in catering but Seth wasn't, so she wandered off down the hallway to check the locker rooms.

Around a corner she spotted Seth's security, Joey and Jamie. "Hey, you two! I need to find Rollins, where is he?"

They both looked at her with distaste, and Jamie stepped forward. "What do you need with the Champ? We're not in the business of giving him up to Ambrose's friends."

"Chill out, Frodo, I'm the new production manager," she snapped, flashing her badge. She didn't need their issues getting in the way of her landing the perfect job. "I need to prep him for the match. Don't make me tell Stephanie that you were the ones that screwed up her show."

Joey inspected her badge warily before turning his look of distaste back at her. "Locker room 3. We'll be waiting for him in gorilla."

"I'll be sure to pass the message along," she said, rolling her eyes and pushing past them. She knocked loudly on the door twice before opening it. "Rollins, you need to hurry up and get ready for your entrance, you'll go in after Ran-"

She stopped in her tracks. Seth was sitting alone in the locker room, tugging on his boots, his shirt off and sitting next to him. Chloe forced herself to swallow – she had watched the show plenty of times on tv before but the cameras didn't do his muscles justice. The CrossFit was definitely working for him.

"Why are _you_ telling me this?" he asked, standing up and tugging his shirt on. Her eyes narrowed; she didn't like the way he said 'you'.

"Production manager quit. I was qualified to take over. I figured you would have known that, being the Authority's favorite pet project," she said darkly, finding her voice after its temporary disappearance.

"I don't tend to bother myself with the underlings. I might make an exception for you though, princess," he drawled, brushing against her as he headed for the exit.

His arm was warm and sent a tingle through her as it touched her. She shook her head and covered up the mouthpiece of the headset. "Get fucked, Rollins. I don't tend to bother myself with traitors."

He was gone before she could see his reaction.

* * *

After the show was over Chloe brought the headset and badge back to Nate's office.

"Great job tonight, Chloe – I don't have anything here right now, but if you meet us in Indianapolis next Monday I'll have employment papers for you to sign. Just tell the security at the door who you are, I'll make sure you're on the list," Nate told her, looking pleased.

"Will do. Thank you again, I look forward to working with you," Chloe said, unable to contain her grin as she left the office and headed towards the locker room that she knew Dean and Roman were assigned to.

"I got the job!" she said, crashing into Dean with a violent hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He returned her hug, ruffling her auburn hair. "Told you you'd be great, darlin'. Congrats."

"Congratulations!" Roman boomed, enveloping them both in a big hug and lifting them off the ground. Chloe laughed, steadying herself on Roman's shoulder when he set them down. "When do you start? Do you want to ride with us?"

"That'd be great! I just need to go home to pack up and take care of a few things so I'm not just up and leaving my roommates without warning. I'll meet you at your hotel tomorrow morning?"

Dean nodded. "Sure thing. I'll have Roman text you the info."

"What beef do you have with phones?" she sighed, shaking her head as she exchanged numbers with Roman.

"Why bother when I've got you two?"

"But we're not... never mind. I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said, waving and leaving the arena to walk back to her apartment for the last time.


	2. Let You Off The Hook Too Easy

**A/N:** Heyo, thanks to **calwitch** , **Raquel the writer** , and **Moxie Steele** for your kind words, and to everyone who followed/favorited, I'm glad you like it so far! And even if you didn't do any of those things, I appreciate y'all checking it out.

The stuff I mention Seth liking is stuff I've grabbed from interviews or other stuff he's said.

* * *

Two weeks into the job and things were going great. She got along with most everyone, didn't have to spend much time with anyone she didn't, and most importantly she was good at it. She walked into a common room where the Superstars and Divas could kill time when they weren't on camera, looking for John Cena.

"Hey Johnny, you have five minutes before you need to make your entrance, show me that hustle you're always going on about! Dean, your match is in 20, if you're not dressed and ready for it I'm gonna kick your ass," Chloe threatened, kicking his legs off of the table he was resting them on.

"Hey, hostile work environment!" he scowled, rubbing the spot where her foot had connected.

"You're a **wrestler** , your entire job is the definition of a hostile work environment," she muttered, crossing John off her list as he apologized for being late and ran towards gorilla.

"Oh hey, me an' Roman gotta do some press bullshit tomorrow and we'll be flyin' into Dallas late afternoon, so you're gonna have to find your own way there," he said as he stood up to head to the locker room. "Sorry darlin'."

"No big, I'll just pick up a rental on my own," she said, walking out with him and turning the opposite direction to find Dolph. She had her face buried in her schedule to figure out how to make up for a match that had gotten cut short when she felt herself collide painfully with someone. She winced, looking up and opening her mouth to apologize. She froze when she saw who it was.

"You seem to have a thing for banging into me, princess," Seth smirked.

Chloe fought the blush that threatened to bloom on her cheeks, sidestepping him to keep moving down the hall. "I don't have time for you, I have work to do."

"Hold on a second." He put a hand gently on her shoulder, sending an unwanted warm sensation into her stomach. "What time do I need to be ready to go out?"

"Uh... 8:45. You're not due to fight, so leave your shirt on," she told him after checking her schedule, shrugging out of his touch and continuing down the hall to find Dolph.

"You sure you want that?" he called after her, snickering. Obviously she hadn't suppressed her red cheeks as much as she'd hoped. She ignored him, ignored the voice inside her head asking ' _yeah, are you?_ ', ignored the sensation that continued to pool in her stomach, and threw herself back into her work.

* * *

The next morning Chloe woke up late. Dean and Roman usually wanted to hit the road early so that they'd have time to hit the gym before the show, but traveling without them meant she had a couple extra hours to sleep in. She grabbed her bag and went down to the lobby, stopping at the desk to check out.

"You gave away my rental car?" she heard a familiar voice having a very agitated phone call next to the door. "I know it's not your fault...credit is great but it doesn't help me get to my destination...whatever, you too."

Chloe sighed, watching Seth end the call on his phone and put his head into his hands. She wrestled internally with herself for a minute before her better nature had her walking over to him. "Problem?"

He looked up, doing a double take when he saw who was asking. "The rental company gave my car away and it was the last one they had. Everyone else is already gone and all of the flights this afternoon are booked. I don't know how I'm gonna get to the show."

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, staring down at him before making a decision. "Come on, then."

"What?" he said, clearly thrown off.

"Come, get into my car, I'll give you a lift. Move it before I change my mind."

"...okay. Thanks princ- Chloe," he said, jogging to keep up with her.

"My job depends on making sure that you all get to where you need to go. I'd be a pretty shit employee if I left you to rot in Oklahoma," she told him, unlocking the trunk and throwing her bag in. "Don't read anything more into it. I still think you suck hard for stabbing Dean and Roman in the back."

He was quiet as he got into the car, buckling his seatbelt and getting comfortable. "I was just doing what was best for me."

"I'm not thinkin' it was worth beating up your friends with a fuckin' steel chair, but whatever. I'm not here to grill you on your decisions. I don't much care," she said, letting her ire take over for anything else she might feel.

They drove in silence for several minutes, Chloe starting to regret offering him a ride, when he spoke again. "So what's your story?"

She eyed him for a moment before turning her attention back to the road. "What's it to you?"

"I figure it's preferable to sitting here in awkward silence for four hours, but if you'd prefer that then by all means, be my guest. It's your car."

She sighed, clicking the cruise control on and relaxing a little bit. "Grew up in the same area as Dean. He's a couple years older than me but we gravitated to each other 'cause we both liked wrestling. My family was a bit better off than his so he came over to watch it sometimes and my parents always treated him like family. I'm not much of a fighter, though, so I didn't follow him when he went off to be a wrestler. I went through college for communications and started workin' managing people. Ended up here 'cause Dean knew I was between jobs and your people needed someone."

"Yeah, he's good at looking out for people," Seth said softly.

Chloe glanced over at him again, surprised to see him sporting a moody expression as he stared out the window. She shook her head, turning her attention back to the road. ' _Well good, he should feel regret. If that's what that is._ '

They were quiet for several more minutes, Chloe stalwartly ignoring the pensive look on Seth's face, before he touched her rearview mirror ornament and spoke up again. "There's only supposed to be one snitch in a game of Quidditch, y'know. Doesn't make a lot of sense for there to be two of them together."

"Wouldn't have pegged you for a Harry Potter fan," she replied, her eyes widening slightly at his comment.

"There are probably a lot of things about me that would surprise you," he replied, putting his hand down. "Why do you have this in a rental, anyway?"

"Makes it easier to find the car in a parking lot. Besides, it's like having a little piece of home with me, 'specially if my friends aren't around." He didn't say anything at that, just looked a little sad again, and she tried to keep the conversation going to ignore that. "Why weren't your hobgoblin buddies around to chauffeur you around? They seem eager to jump up and do your bidding."

"I don't travel with them if I can help it. You think I wanna spend anymore time with those too than is absolutely necessary? You've met them, right?" Chloe laughed at that, and Seth turned to study her. "You look nice like that, you know."

Her breath left her chest all at once. "Like what?" she asked carefully.

"Smiling. Happy. Non-hostile, even, if I don't want to push my luck."

She wasn't sure how to respond to that. She swallowed her initial scathing remark, deciding that there had been enough of those to last the rest of the car ride. Ignoring the comments she didn't have an explanation for had been working for her so far, so she handed him her iPod and said, "The road noise is grating on me, pick somethin' to listen to."

He spent a bit in silence scrolling through her music, before smiling and shaking his head. "You sure you didn't just steal my iPod and call it yours?"

"Whatcha mean?" The movement caught her eye for a moment. ' _You don't look too bad when you're smiling, either,_ ' the errant thought ran through her mind before she could squash it. She forced her attention back to the road again, irritated with herself that it was a struggle.

"We seem to have very similar music tastes," he said, putting on Taking Back Sunday's _Where You Want To Be_ and putting the iPod into a cup holder. Seth immediately started enthusiastically singing along, and Chloe couldn't help but smile again. He started motioning for her to join in, and halfway through the first song she gave in, her voice joining his yelling the lyrics and taking them down the highway.

* * *

Chloe pulled up in front of the hotel, stopping in the passenger drop-off spot. "I uh, promised I'd pick up Dean and Roman at the airport, so I gotta drop you off here," she said, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

"Oh, sure. No problem," he said, seeming just as uncomfortable at the mention of his former friends. His brown eyes met her blue ones, and he gave her a small smile. "Well, thanks for the ride. See you later tonight."

"Yeah. Later," she said. She popped the trunk when he was behind the car so he could grab his bag and drove off when she felt it thud shut. "He's still a dick, road trip karaoke doesn't change that," she muttered, getting back on the freeway towards the airport. ' _Is he though? He seemed awfully regretful. Great, now I'm talking to myself. Three hours and I'm already going fuckin' crazy because of him._ ' She shook her head and pulled off at the airport, spotting Dean and Roman waiting outside of their gate.

"Enjoy your half hour flight?" she asked them when they got into the car.

Dean scoffed. "Whoever scheduled that interview oughta be fired. I thought one of the perks of the modern age is being able to do that shit anywhere and not havin' to pull crap like this."

"That's good coming from the man who refuses to answer his phone or learn how to text," she smirked, heading back to the hotel.

"How was your drive?" Roman asked, spreading out in the back of the car.

She gulped. ' _Lying is stupid, nothing good will come of it, just be honest._ ' "Long. I actually, uh, ended up giving Rollins a ride. Rental car company fucked up and he couldn't get a flight. Heard him yellin' about it when I was checking out."

Dean cocked an eyebrow. "Sounds like the drive sucked worse than our flight. You lock him in the trunk?"

"Talent dying on my watch wouldn't really make me employee of the year," she said dryly, relieved that his reaction was calm.

"He wasn't an asshole to you, was he? If he was I'll go find him an' kick his-"

"It was fine," she interrupted him, stopping him before he got going. "He seemed well aware that I was doing him a favor and acted accordingly. 'Sides, I'm more than capable of takin' care of myself."

She saw Roman nod in approval in the rearview mirror; even if Seth did deserve it, sending Dean after him wasn't the ideal way of handling it. Chloe liked Roman. He was quiet and had a head for when to stop, think, and bide your time, which was a good compliment to Dean's "go in fists flying and think about the consequences never" approach to problems. She pulled up at the hotel for the second time that day and parked the car, making a grab for her bag out of the trunk before having it snatched out of her hands by Roman.

"You'd bite my hand off if I tried to pull that," Dean observed, falling into step beside her.

"Not if it was after I drove three hours and then picked your ass up at the airport, I wouldn't," she replied, shoving him lightly. "'Sides, Roman's not doing it to show off."

"Bullshit he's not."

Roman laughed deeply. "So suspicious, Ambrose. Besides, we're here, so does it really matter either way?"

Chloe opened the door to their hotel room, moving so that the boys could come inside and drop their bags. She could have gotten a separate room from the two of them, but she and Dean had been sharing beds since they were kids, and she didn't mind sleeping on the couch if it got weird. Plus, sleeping by herself in strange places kind of freaked her out, so a hotel couch was preferable to that.

"Hey guys, we got fifteen minutes before we gotta be at the arena, we should get a move on," she told them, changing her shirt and pulling a pair of shorts on over her leggings to make her attire slightly more work-appropriate. She was grateful that Nate hadn't said anything about a dress code, but figured she shouldn't push it.

"What's with the Ziggler shirt, traitor?" Dean asked indignantly as they left the hotel to walk down the street to the arena.

"He's a lot nicer than you are," she replied, causing Roman to laugh loudly. "Get me more than one Dean Ambrose shirt and maybe I'll wear 'em more often, but I'm not gonna do laundry every day just so that I can rep you backstage."

"I'll get you a weeks' worth of Roman Reigns shirts," Roman promised.

"Sure, if you like brawn over brains," Dean quipped.

"Hey!" Roman objected, raising his fist and running after Dean.

"You're just proving my point, brotha!" Dean called behind him as he ran away to avoid Roman. Chloe had to stop because she was laughing so hard that her stomach hurt.

* * *

Once they got to the arena they separated so that Chloe could pick up her headset and schedule for the evening. Her job was a lot easier now that she had a better of idea where everyone tended to hang out before the show, but she still liked to stay on top of things in case someone threw her a curve ball. First to go on that night were Randy and Big Show. The Authority had their own schedules to adhere to, with information that hers didn't have, so she didn't have to worry about getting Show. They liked to keep everything compartmentalized so that if the schedule got leaked they could still surprise people, which meant that Chloe never had to directly deal with them. This was fine with her; she knew that Hunter had helped orchestrate Seth's betrayal and wasn't looking forward to crossing paths with him, but Randy had earned their trust again only to stab Seth in the back, so he was alright by her.

She went toward catering, which was usually where people went when they arrived at the arena, to look for Randy and remind him that he was going on first. She found him there having a conversation with Brie Bella over an early dinner. "Hey, Killer? You're up first, so don't eat too much, wouldn't want you getting stomach cramps out there." Chloe had been a fan of his since he was the Legend Killer, so it had become an affectionate nickname once they had become properly acquainted.

He nodded. "Thanks, Chlo. Already on it, just having a salad 'til later."

She smiled gratefully at him, turning to greet Brie. "Hey, Brie. You and Nikki are up at 6:20, I'll come find you guys a little later to make sure you're still on track."

"Thanks, Chloe," Brie smiled at her, picking at a bread roll. "You wanna have lunch with us next week before the show?"

"Sounds great, let me know the details later," Chloe said happily, glad that she was making friends in the company. Dean and Roman were great, but it was nice to have a break from the testosterone every now and then. Brie nodded, and Chloe went to grab something to snack on before the night picked up and she got busy.

She picked at a muffin as she studied the schedule, trying to memorize it so that she could move more efficiently, when a shadow loomed over her. She looked up and was surprised to see Seth there, looking down at her. "Uh, hey," she said slowly, putting her papers down.

"Hey Chloe," he said, causing her to cock an eyebrow. He was being nicer than usual and she didn't trust him. "I just wanted to say thanks again for getting me here. I would have been screwed without you."

"No problem."

"Look, uh, I-" he started to say, before being interrupted by Joey and Jamie.

"Hey boss, Hunter wants to go over some strategy for later. What are you doing talking to the help?" Joey said disdainfully as they flanked him. Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.

"...nothing. Let's go," Seth said, turning away without looking at her.

Chloe stared daggers in his back as he left the room. ' _So much for not being a total dick,_ ' she scoffed, shaking her head to get Seth out of her mind as she turned back to her work.

* * *

The night was getting close to an end and Seth was in the main event, as had become the convention for the past few weeks, this time in a match against Roman. She had already found Roman and told him to get ready; he had nodded and told her that he'd see her after the show. She weaved through the hallways to Seth's private locker room, a recent upgrade for him. She knocked hard twice on the door, waiting for him to open it so that she wouldn't catch him in any more states of undress.

"What is it?" she heard from the other side of the door before it opened. "Oh, hey-"

"The help would like you to know that your match starts soon," she said stiffly.

"Chloe, wait, I didn't-"

"I don't wanna hear it, Rollins," she snapped. "You don't gotta be nice to me just 'cause I did you a favor. I told you, it was part of my job. Don't put yourself out on my account."

Seth looked like he wanted to say something, before Joey and Jamie came up behind her just as Dean came from the other direction "What's up, darlin'? The goon squad giving you trouble?" he asked, stopping next to her.

"Back off, Ambrose," Joey said, cracking his knuckles.

Jamie went to stand in front of Seth, acting as a barrier between him and Dean and Chloe. "This trash bothering you, boss?"

"No," Seth said, his face becoming closed off. She gave him a hard look as for the second time that evening he stood by silently while his security insulted her.

Dean bristled next to her. "Lettin' your security trolls threaten a lady, real nice, Rollins. I keep thinkin' you've hit rock bottom but you're still there with your pickaxe determined to prove me wrong."

"It doesn't matter," Chloe said, still glaring at Seth. "I'm not worried about them, or about Justin Bieber here who can't win a fight without getting three of his buddies to help him out. I'm done here."

"Nice to see you too, princess," he snapped at her back.

"You good?" Dean asked her, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah. Fuck him," she spat, shredding her schedule for something to do with her hands.

"Fuck him is right. Forget about his garbage and let's go wait for Roman and get the hell out of here."

Chloe knew that he was right, but she couldn't stop herself from feeling hurt at how Seth had acted. She had thought maybe there was something to his personality other than being a complete asshole, but he had torn any misconceptions about that down thoroughly. She leaned into Dean as they went to wait for Roman, doing her best to purge Seth from her mind.


	3. When You Are Close To Me I Shiver

**A/N:** Huge thank you to **Raquel the writer** , **calwitch** , **angelsdee327** , and **Lordban** for the reviews, as well as anyone who followed, favorited, or just read it; I appreciate it. Your reactions give me life, and I'm stoked that people are enjoying what I'm writing.

Fair warning, this chapter is where that explicit rating comes into play.

* * *

Later that night Chloe was nestled between Roman and Dean on one of the hotel room's beds, watching a mindless action movie to take her mind off of her earlier irritation. She shouldn't have cared so much that Seth had kept his mouth shut while Joey and Jamie insulted her; it was par for the course for him to be an asshole.

"You okay there, darlin'? You're missing all of the explosions," Dean said to her in a hushed voice, knocking the side of her head with his.

"Yeah, I'm good. Long day," she offered, returning his head bump. She heard her phone buzz on the other bed with an email and struggled out of her spot to check it. She groaned when she saw its contents.

"Everything okay?" Roman asked, pausing the movie when he heard her.

"Yeah, just some last minute instructions about the show tomorrow that I gotta go give out now," she sighed, tucking her phone and her room key in the pocket of her pajama shorts.

"Want us to come with?" Dean asked, making to get up.

She shook her head. "Nah, stay, get some sleep, we got an early morning tomorrow. I'll be quiet coming in."

"You know I sleep like a rock anyway," Dean shrugged, hitting play and resuming the movie.

She pulled the door shut behind her, pulling out her phone to try and call as many people as she could to avoid having to run all over the hotel. She told Barrett that he needed to be there early for some press stuff, Dolph that his opponent had changed so he should prepare for that, and Nikki that Total Divas was in fact going to be there for her tomorrow and that she had emailed her a rundown of what she needed to be ready for. Nikki thanked her and hung up, and Chloe looked at the last name on her list.

' _Great, Rollins, the last person I wanted to talk to right now,_ ' she sighed, flicking through her contacts to find him. She tried twice and it rang through to voicemail both times, eliciting a noise of frustration from her. ' _Of_ course _you're going to be the one that's the pain in my ass._ ' She checked the email again to find his room number, one floor above hers, and padded up the stairs in bare feet. She banged on his door several times, her agitation rising when he wasn't coming to it.

' _Now what?_ ' she mused. An idea struck her. She took the elevator down to the lobby and went to the front desk. "Hi, can you help me? Seth Rollins in room 1204 is a coworker of mine-" she flashed her badge, "-and I need to get some important work stuff to him, but he's not coming to the door. Any chance you could get me a copy of his room key?"

The desk clerk inspected her badge, then nodded. "Sure thing, Miss Lockett. Anything to keep the show running smoothly. I'm a huge fan," she added, smiling as she printed another key.

"Thanks for supporting us," Chloe returned her smile, taking the key. "I hope you can tune in tomorrow, we're gonna have a great show." She returned to the elevator and went back up to the 12th floor, swiping the keycard and going inside. She scanned the room for Seth, freezing when she saw him coming out of the bathroom in nothing but sweats, his hair dripping wet, clutching a towel.

"What the fuck, Chloe?" he asked, taken aback at her sudden entrance.

She kept her eyes diligently on his face, ignoring his damp chest and the way the sweats clung to his hips. "I needed to give you information about tomorrow. You weren't answering your phone or the door. I'm authorized to get keycards to your rooms if I need them."

"I was in the shower," he said unnecessarily, holding up the towel.

"I got that. Anyway, Hunter wants you to go to him first thing tomorrow at arrival time. Something about changing up your moveset."

"He couldn't have told me this himself?" he asked, drying off his hair with the towel.

She shrugged. "It's my job to make sure all of this shit runs smoothly. I assume they prefer everything go through me instead of trusting you all to check your email in time."

Seth shrugged. "Okay."

"Yeah. Okay. Message delivered. Good night," she said cooly, moving to leave the room.

"What is your problem?" he asked abruptly, sounding upset.

She slowly turned back to face him. " **My** problem? The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean we drive to Dallas together, everything seems fine, and then you're back to treating me like the scum of the earth!" he said, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"I treated **you** like the scum of the earth," she repeated lowly, moving closer to him. "Last I checked, you're the one who stood around like a fuckin' mime while your hobbit buddies referred to me as 'the help' and 'trash'. I'm not the one with the problem here, Rollins."

His face fell for a moment, looking ashamed. "But I didn't-"

"Standing there with your mouth shut and then dismissing me is hardly better than saying it yourself! You're either a huge asshole or you're fuckin' spineless! Not to mention you're rude, condescending, and a fuckin' traitor!"

She had gotten progressively closer to him while she had been yelling, and now she was right in front of his face. She stared daggers at him, trembling, as he stood there looking at her almost impassively. The air between them was thick and tense, and after a few moments of silence he grabbed her face in his hands and crashed his lips into hers.

It was like a lightning bolt struck her. Her insides turned molten and an almost painful yearning took hold of her chest, and then her hands were on his shoulders and she was kissing him back with the same intensity. His tongue probed her mouth and she opened it to grant him access, meeting his tongue with hers. His hands moved from her face to her hips as they kissed, breaking apart to breathe after a couple of minutes.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, trying to get her breathing under control.

"I'm sorry. I really am. I was a dick, and I should have said something, or done something, or... something." he said. His brown eyes softer than she'd ever seen them. "Do you want to go?" She stared at him intently for a moment, unable to find anything in his expression that contradicted what he was saying. ' _Fuck it,_ ' she thought, moving in quickly to kiss him again. He put one of his hands on her backside to lift her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, his other hand moving up to bury itself in her hair. He backed her up so that she was pressed against the wall. His chest was crushed against hers and she felt her nipples harden inside her tanktop, rubbing against his skin.

He tugged on her hair to pull her head back so that he could get to her neck, kissing and sucking at every inch of it he could reach. She choked out a moan, rolling her hips against his and feeling his erection pressing into her. She felt him groan against her skin and he pulled her even closer to him. "Fuck..." she sighed softly, digging her nails into his back.

Still holding onto her, he moved her away from the wall and carried her over to the bed, putting her down and settling in on top of her. He moved his hand down from her hair to cup her breast, squeezing and caressing it while kissing her. The desperation had died down a little bit, causing the kisses to become less sloppy and deeper. She pulled away from him and reached down to peel her tanktop off, dropping it on the floor next to the bed. He looked at her hungrily, moving his hand back to her breast. "Fuck, you're beautiful," he said reverently, moving to suck one of her nipples in his mouth. He rolled the other one between his fingers, causing her to moan and undulate under him.

She shifted and pushed him off of her, turning him over so that he was laying underneath her. She ran her hands over his chest, feeling his hard muscles underneath her fingers and making him shiver. She got down to his hips and tugged at his pants; he lifted his hips so that she could pull them all the way off. He gave her a cocky smile when her eyes widened at the sight of his cock as it sprang free. "Meet your expectations okay?"

"S'not hard to do when your expectations are low," she deadpanned, tossing his pants next to her top.

"Haha, very funn- ohhhh," he moaned gutturally as she ran her tongue along the length of his erection. She closed her mouth around the head, swirling her tongue around it a few times before slowly working it in deeper. She had to breathe deep through her nose and relax her throat before she could get him all the way in, but she managed, slowly moving her mouth up and down. "Christ, you're good at that." She laughed around him, drawing out another moan from him. "Fuck, okay, stop, you're gonna send me over the edge."

She was a little disappointed but complied, dragging her lips off of his cock with a wet popping sound. His eyes darkened at that and he pulled her back up to kiss her again, flipping her over so that he was on top of her once more. He kissed a path down her neck to the waistband of her shorts, sliding his fingers into the top of them and looking up at her for confirmation. She nodded, lifting up so that he could slide them off of her along with her underwear.

He lowered himself and slipped his tongue slowly inside of her folds, probing her clit with his tongue. She exhaled sharply, grabbing fistfuls of the sheet under her. He looked straight at her while he slid his tongue up and down the length of her, sucking her clit into his mouth and sucking gently. "Fuck!" she cried, trying not to buck her hips into his face. He maintained eye contact with her while he sat up, rubbing his thumb against her clit while slowly pushing a finger inside of her. The sensation combined with his gaze was almost overwhelming, and she moved against his finger, pushing it further inside of her.

"You're so warm," he said wonderously, adding another finger and fucking her with them slowly, winding her up.

She breathed deeply as his fingers moved around inside of her, twisting and burying inside of her. "Seth... I want..." she gasped, finding it difficult to get her sentence out.

"You want what?" he smirked, continuing to leisurely move his fingers in and out of her, wanting to hear her say it.

"I want you to fuck me," she said, matching his stare and breathing heavily.

His cock twitched visibly when she said that, and he slowly, _painfully_ slowly pulled his fingers all the way out of her, scooting forward on his knees so that their hips were aligned. He paused. "Do we need-"

"I'm on the pill," she assured him. "An' I promise I'm clean. Though I won't be upset if you wanna use one anyway."

He shook his head. "No, I trust you. I am too."

"If you're not I'm gonna come back here and kick your ass," she promised. He pressed her gently back onto the bed, kissing her again. She tasted herself on him and sighed against his mouth, moving her hands into his hair and pulling him closer. She felt his erection press against her entrance, before he pushed in slowly, with shallow thrusts to let her acclimate.

She couldn't deal with that. Slow and soft meant something entirely different than desperate and rough, and she wasn't prepared to face the former. "I appreciate your consideration an' all, but..." she trailed off, moving her hips up to meet his so that he sunk all the way inside of her in lieu of finishing her sentence.

He groaned, reaching up to grab her hands. "So you want it to be like that, huh?" he asked, and she nodded slowly. He moved her arms up above her head and pinned both of them down with one hand, looking at her for silent confirmation that this was okay. She nodded at him again, relishing the feeling of being trapped underneath him, clenching around his cock. He swore and went to kiss her again, his other hand planting itself on her hip to give him leverage as he started to slowly thrust in and out.

Between the hands on her wrists and hip she was completely immobile, but that was okay because Seth knew exactly what he was doing. He pushed deep inside of her, pressing his forehead against hers so that he could look into her eyes while she did it, and twisted his hips so that he was buried as deep as he could go. He moved slowly at first, gradually increasing the tempo as she squirmed beneath him, wrapping her legs around his waist to give him better access. He fucked her relentlessly, the sharp sounds of their skin slapping together and wet noises from their kissing filling the room. He moved to suck on her neck again and she felther stomach tighten and her breathing begin to hitch. "Seth... I'm gonna..."

"Me too baby," he said against her skin. He moved his hand away from her hip to rub her clit, pushing her over the edge.

"Seth!" she cried desperately as her orgasm ripped through her, at the same time she heard him say " _fuck_ , Chloe." She felt herself pulsate around him, felt him explode inside of her, moaned at the feeling of getting filled with his hot, sticky cum. He released her arms and stroked her cheek softly as they rode out their orgasms together, pressing a gentle kiss against her lips when they were done. She smiled up at him, rubbing small circles into his back, enjoying the feeling of his weight on top of her. She excused herself to go to the bathroom, and he whined a little bit before slowly pulling out of her and lying down next to her.

She returned from the bathroom and saw him watching her, relaxing on his back, smiling softly. "Did you want me to..." she said unsurely, gesturing towards the door.

"No, stay, please," he said, pulling the sheet aside for her. ' _Cuddling after_ _wards_ _is normal. This is okay._ ' She crawled back into bed next to him, laying her head on his chest. He pulled the sheet over them and threaded his fingers through her hair, playing with it idly.

"You know, you're kinda giving me whiplash here," she said, running her fingers across the muscles in his stomach.

"How's that?"

"You go from ice cold to warm back to cold and then to sizzling hot. I'm not sure if you're gonna back to freezing me out next time I see you or not. It's exhausting to keep up with. Plus there's still the tiny fact that you betrayed Dean and Roman – I'm not even sure how to **begin** sorting that out with everything else."

He sighed. "Dean and Roman... that's a complicated story that I don't want to get into right now. I'll tell you about it some other time. But I'm not proud of it. It wasn't one of my finer moments."

She hummed in agreement. "I don't think I need to know the story to know that much."

"I deserved that one. As for Noble and Mercury... like I said, I really am sorry. I wasn't just saying that earlier. I was an asshole. I'll talk to them, there's no grounds for them to talk to you like that."

Chloe shook her head. "I can deal with them, I don't really give a fuck what they think. But if we're gonna be...friends, non-hostile, whatever, I just needed to know for sure that you didn't agree with them."

"I could never think that," he said, his voice oozing regret. "I'm still gonna tell them to knock it off. I don't doubt that you can handle it but you shouldn't have to."

"Thanks," she said quietly, suddenly exhausted. She pushed all of the ' _how could you do this_ ' thoughts out of her mind, to be dealt with later, and let the sound of his heartbeat lull her to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N:** This was originally supposed to be the meat and potatoes of the story back when it was just a one-shot. "Shouty arguing becoming sex" was the original inspiration.

I've been intentionally vague about whether or not I want this to be totally within kayfabe, so if anyone is confused about that... me too. I'm sorry. Hopefully I'll decide soon. Ditto with the actual goings-on inside the ring, because I didn't really want to be confined by that, but it gets a definite place in the timeline in the next couple of chapters.


	4. It's The Mess That Feels So Right

**A/N:** Thanks to **calwitch** and **Raquel the writer** for reviewing, and as always, to everyone who followed, favorited, or checked it out.

* * *

Seth's alarm blared the next morning, starting Chloe awake. She felt him move underneath her to silence it as she groaned and squeezed her eyes shut tighter. "What time is it?" she asked, her voice hoarse from the night before.

"6:30. Usually time for me to head out so I have time to hit the gym before the show."

"Don't let me stop you," she muttered sleepily, making no effort to disentangle herself from him.

"If I wanted to go I'd be up," he said, stroking her hair. She finally opened her eyes, looking up at him to see that he was already looking at her, a peaceful smile on his face.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw his expression. Kind and adoring, and not at all what she was used to after casual flings – it scared the hell out of her. ' _Probably just being nice._ ' She did her best to return it and shrugged him off. "Nah, really, don't let me keep you. Can't have you getting out of shape and injuring yourself. I got stuff I gotta do before leaving anyway."

He snorted. "Yeah, like skipping one day of CrossFit is gonna make _that_ happen." But he let her up, watching her get dressed and making no effort to get out of bed himself. She found her pajamas and made sure she had her phone and room key before turning to face him. "I'll see you later?" he said quietly, touching her cheek. She nodded, and he pecked her on the lips before letting her leave.

Fortunately the hallway was empty, so she didn't have to worry about any awkward run-ins. Which also allowed the magnitude of what she'd done sink in immediately upon exiting Seth's room. ' _The man who betrayed your best friends by beating them up with a steel chair, good going,_ ' her inner monologue sneered. She didn't really have a rebuttal, so she just sighed heavily and took the stairs down to her, Dean, and Roman's room. She slid her card in the slot and opened the door quietly, hoping they were still asleep. No such luck.

"Where'd ya end up last night? Please tell me it wasn't Ziggler's room," Dean snickered, pulling on his shirt.

She made a face. "I like Dolph but I don't like him that much. No, I uh, got to talking with Paige and then it was late enough that I just crashed with her," she told them, knowing that neither of them really spoke with Paige and so it was a safe cover until she could come clean. She knew that lying to them was a terrible idea, and didn't plan on keeping it up for long, but she needed to figure out how to tell them – and talk to Seth so that she could figure out exactly _what_ there was to tell.

"You didn't miss much. The end of the movie sucked anyway, turned out it was all a dream," Dean said, throwing his stuff into his bag haphazardly.

"Ugh, I hate that shit," she scoffed, pulling clean clothes out of her bag. "Give me ten minutes to shower and we can hit the road?"

Roman nodded, folding his clothes. "We'll finish packing up in here. Don't feel like you need to rush."

She smiled gratefully at him before locking herself in the bathroom, stepping into the shower and trying to scrape away all of the awful things she felt.

* * *

The drive to Phoenix was surprisingly stress-free, given her overwhelming guilt. Chloe sat in the backseat while Dean and Roman chattered; Dean was now trying to convince Roman that Bigfoot could exist.

"Dude, I'm not gonna buy that there's some 8-foot monster living out in the wilderness. That's too big to hide."

"Do you know how much unexplored land there is in the US alone?" Dean argued. "You can't tell me that every square inch of it has been explored at the same time to disprove it."

"You really need to stop watching the SyFy channel at 2 am," Roman laughed.

"Look, I'm not sayin' that it's definitely out there, I'm just sayin' that nobody has absolutely proved that it isn't..."

"I'm afraid you're gonna have to come up with a more convincing argument than that, bro."

Chloe smiled at their bickering, shaking her head a little at Dean. "Exit's the next one after this one, Roman."

"Thanks," he said, moving over to prepare to get off the freeway. They pulled up to the hotel five minutes later, letting Chloe off at the entrance so that she could check in while they parked. She picked up the keys and texted Roman the room number, heading to the stairs to meet them there.

She ran into Seth on a landing between floors as he was heading downstairs. His face lit up when he saw her. "Hey," he said softly, reaching for one of her hands.

"Hi," she breathed, a jolt running up her arm when he touched her. "You just get here?"

"Nah, I've already been to the gym and back, I'm heading over to the arena to talk to Hunter. Don't want to be late and get you in trouble."

"Oh, thanks. I appreciate that," she said, her face reddening when she thought about what happened after she'd delivered the message. "Um, I gotta be somewhere now but can we talk later? Before the show or somethin'?"

He nodded, eyeing her warily. "Sure. Just shoot me a text and I'll tell you where I am."

"No need to sound like I'm sendin' you to the firing squad. I promise it's not as bad as it sounds."

"Okay," he said, sounding less worried and letting a smile play across his lips. "See you later."

"Later," she said quietly as his hand slipped out of hers and he continued downstairs. She watched after him for a second before making her way up three more flights to get to the room.

Dean and Roman were waiting outside. "What took you so long?" Dean asked, leaning against the wall next to the door as she opened it.

"Bathroom," she said quickly, opening the door and going inside before he could question her any more.

Roman set the bags down inside, digging around inside of his. "We're gonna hit the gym before the show, we'll see you there?" he said, pulling out his gym clothes and moving them to a duffle bag.

"Have fun," she said, falling back onto one of the beds and groaning when they were gone. ' _How in the hell am I supposed to handle this?_ ' she wondered, staring at the ceiling. An idea came to her and she grabbed her phone, sending a text to Brie.

 **Chloe: Hey, any chance we could move that lunch up to today? I need advice.**

Brie, bless her heart, didn't take long to respond.

 **Brie: Sure thing, Nik's busy filming some stuff for Divas but I've got time. Meet you in the lobby in 10?**

Chloe texted her in the affirmative and went into the bathroom to freshen up after the long car ride, emerging a couple minutes later and racing down to the lobby. She pulled Brie into a hug when she saw her. "Thanks for this. I'm pretty sure I did something really fuckin' stupid."

Brie laughed. "Uh-oh. There's a diner next door that's supposed to be pretty good, come and pour your woes out to me over milkshakes."

* * *

"...and so now I have no idea how to tell Dean and Roman or even what there is to tell, because I don't know what Seth wants and even if he does want anything else I don't know if I want it because he's still a backstabbing jerk," Chloe anguished, letting her face fall into her hands.

Brie patted her friend's arm sympathetically, swirling her straw around in her glass. "You said he might be feeling some regrets, though?"

"Yeah, he said some weird cryptic shit while we were driving to Dallas and last night he told me that it was a complicated story that he didn't want to get into right then but that he wasn't proud of it."

"Was that before or after he gave you the Peace of Mind?" Brie snickered, earning a smack on the arm from Chloe.

"Brie! …after. Words don't mean much when you're talking about beating up your friends with chairs, though."

"Maybe, but that's a less uncommon thing with us than it is in most other lines of work," Brie said. "Besides, Hunter would have never gone for it if the betrayal wasn't dramatic. Maybe less focus on the steel chairs and more focus on how Dean and Roman feel about it."

Chloe nodded, knowing that Brie was right. "Still pretty upset about it. There's a lot of hostility and tension when they run into him. I don't think they've really talked outside of bullshit macho posturing and destroying each other in the ring, though." She clenched her fists, looking at Brie with a sad look on her face. "They already got betrayed by their brother. It kills me that I'm twisting the knife in deeper."

"I think that lying to them about it is going to hurt them more than anything you actually did," Brie said gently.

"You're right. I know that you are. I just needed to hear someone else tell me," Chloe sighed, slurping down the last of her milkshake. "I'm gonna talk to Seth later to figure out where his head's at and then I'll figure out what to tell Dean and Roman." She smiled up at her friend. "Thanks, Brie. You rock."

"And don't you forget it," the other woman laughed, throwing down cash for the bill and getting up to leave.

Chloe put down her half and followed her. "How's Daniel doing?"

Brie's smile became strained. "Okay. The doctors are still working on figuring out what's wrong with him and how they can fix it. He's coming into town later tonight to travel with me for a few days. He's gotta film some Pay Per View stuff soon anyway."

Chloe put an arm around her friend's shoulders as they walked and squeezed them. "They'll figure it out. Modern medicine is fuckin' amazing and he's got enough heart to will open the bars of a steel cage." Brie laughed at that, hugging Chloe goodbye when they got back to the hotel and saying she'd see her later.

* * *

 **Chloe: Are you free?**

Chloe texted Seth when she got to the arena before going to get her schedule for the night. She slid the headset around her neck, not needing it yet, and was consulting her schedule when she felt her phone buzz in the pocket of her hoodie.

 **Seth: Yeah, I'm in my locker room, come on over.**

Her chest fluttered when she saw his response, changing course to head over to the room he was assigned to. She took a second to compose herself before knocking on the door, her insides melting again as soon as the door opened. ' _So much for playing it cool._ ' She smiled at him in greeting and he pulled her inside, locking the door behind them. "Hi you," she breathed, setting her schedule down on a table.

"Hey yourself," he said, one hand still on her hip.

"Everything okay with Hunter?" she asked, fishing for an icebreaker to calm her nerves.

"Oh, yeah. He uh, wants me to start using the Pedigree. Sort of a mentor passing the torch thing," he mumbled, his face assuming the usual expression of guilt and unhappiness that it took whenever The Authority came up.

"Ah," she said, kicking herself for going down that path. Hunter wasn't going to be anything other than a sore subject between them. "Sit down with me?" He nodded, moving his hand on the small of her back as they went over to the couch. She crossed her legs tightly to make sure that her skirt wasn't revealing anything and looked at him again. "I have to tell Dean what happened. I can't lie to him about this. He's been my best friend for almost twenty years, and I'm not going to fuck that up by keeping whatever this is from him."

He frowned a little before nodding. "Do what you gotta do, I'm not gonna try to stop you. He already hates me probably as much as is humanly possible, so it doesn't change much on my end." A pang went through her chest, but she didn't think now was the time for his complicated story either.

"So uh, what is this, anyway?" she asked quickly, starting to babble. "'Cause if last night was like, a one time thing then that changes the narrative a little bit. If it was then that's fine and I'm not tryin' to force you into anythin', I just wanna figure out what I'm gonna say..."

"Do you want it to be a one time thing?" he asked, putting a hand on her thigh near the bottom of her skirt and rubbing slowly. "I assumed it would be more ongoing, but if you don't want that..."

She sucked in a sharp breath as he leaned over to kiss her, snaking his other arm around her waist and pulling her against him. His hand continued to grip her thigh, making a slow path up and pushing aside her skirt. She wrapped her arms around his neck, returning his slow, burning kisses, moaning when he sucked her tongue into his mouth. He pushed her legs apart and settled himself in between her legs, and she could feel his erection straining against his ring attire as he pressed against her. "I'm really digging the skirt and boots combo," he whispered, causing her to smirk.

"Thought you might."

"Don't tell me you're dressing up for me?" he said, his fingers brushing against the hem of her panties.

"Maybe a little. I figured if it we were gonna break this off I might as well make you regret it at least a lit- goddammit," she swore, hearing her phone ring with the ringtone she'd given to Nate. "It's Nate. I can't ignore it. I can't ignore it." He pouted but let her up to answer the call. "Hi Nate... okay... yeah, I'll make the change, no need to print me up a new one... bye," she said, grabbing a pen to make some notes on her schedule before she hung up the phone. She felt Seth come up behind her and smile. "I gotta go."

"You sure about that?" he said in her ear, leaning into her.

She exhaled slowly. "Unfortunately, yeah. Duty calls an' all." She cursed at Nate's timing as she slid out from between Seth and the table. His pout was back, and she touched his lip, smiling. "You're cute when you pout. Doesn't change anything, though."

He captured her hand in his, entwining their fingers and squeezing gently. "See you later?"

She nodded, pulling her hand away and leaving. She took deep breaths to get her pounding heart under control as she walked down the hallway, passing Joey and Jamie who were undoutedly on their way to Seth's locker room. They sneered at her a little bit but didn't say anything – clearly Seth had made good on his promise. ' _Hope he locked that door behind me,_ ' she thought, laughing to herself.

"What's the joke, darlin'?" she heard from her left. She looked over and saw Dean relaxing on top of an equipment trunk.

"Just saw the security twits lookin' pissed about something. Their distress brings me joy," she lied, uncomfortable with how easy it was for her. "What are you doin' by yourself out here like a fuckin' creeper?"

"I'm supposed to shoot a promo but they're not fuckin' here yet. Made a huge deal about me being in hallway C at exactly 5:15, too."

"Uh, Dean?" she snickered, pointing to a sign above his head marked **B**.

He looked where she was pointing and hopped off the trunk. "Well, that explains that," he said, stretching lazily and falling into step beside her. "Better stop throwing myself into so many tables, it's startin' to affect my brain."

"I think those problems predate the tables."

He threw his hands over his heart. "Ouch, Lockett, that was harsh. Tell me how you really feel."

She laughed. "I feel like you're going to tick off the brass if you don't get your ass over to shoot your promo."

"Yeah, probably. Later," he said, mussing up her hair before jogging off to the next hallway. The guilt threatened to swallow her as she watched him go, and she swore she would talk to him that night.


	5. Best Friends Means I Pulled The Trigger

**A/N:** Sorry this one took a little longer, writer's block is the worst and I didn't want to lose too much of a buffer between what was written and what I put up. Thanks to **Raquel the writer** for the review, and to anyone who followed/faved/checked out the story 3

* * *

Chloe beat the boys back to the hotel after the show. She sat on the bed anxiously waiting for them to get back, staring at the door so intensely she thought she might burn a hole into it. She started when she heard the lock click, looking up at Dean and Roman as they came in the room. They were grinning and joking about something, but their faces grew somber when they looked at her.

"You okay Chlo?" Roman asked, shrugging off his hoodie and dropping it in a chair.

"Yeah darlin', you look like your mom did when I accidentally dyed all of your white clothes pink," Dean said, shutting the door behind him.

She took a deep breath. "I, uh, gotta talk to you guys about something."

"Shoot," Dean said, sitting down on the couch nearest to the bed she was on, Roman joining him a moment later.

"Okay, umm... You know how I said I stayed with Paige last night?" They both nodded, waiting for her to continue. "I didn't. I was going through the list of people that I needed to get messages to, and... Seth wasn't answering his phone. So I went to his room to tell him in person." Roman was still looking at her impassively, but she noticed Dean's jaw clench. "We got to talking... and then, uh, not talking." It was vague but she knew that they got the gist by the expression on Dean's face.

They sat there in silence for several awkward moments. Dean opened and closed his mouth several times, searching for words. "Was this a one time thing?" he finally settled on, and she looked up at him in surprise.

"I...don't know. Maybe not," she said in a small voice, unable to meet his gaze any longer. She didn't see him go but heard stomping and then a door slam. The sound was like a punch in the gut, and tears flooded her eyes. She put her face in her hands, trying to keep her sobs from wracking through her, her chest burning at the effort.

She felt a weight sink the bed next to her. "Baby girl, you know you kinda fucked up right?"

"Ain't no kinda about it," she croaked, turning her face to look at Roman. "I don't know how the fuck it happened. One minute I was yelling at him about what a fuckin' asshole he was, and the next..."

"I don't need the details."

She snorted. "Wasn't offerin'." They sat there in silence for a few moments, and she took in a couple of shuddering breaths to try to calm herself. "I appreciate it but you don't hafta stay here with me. I won't really blame you if you hate me."

Roman shook his head, putting an arm around her shoulder. "I don't hate you, sweetheart. I don't even hate Seth." Her resolve faltered at his kindness, and she choked out a single, awful sob. "But Dean... I don't need to tell you. You've known him way longer than I have."

"Will probably take some time, yeah. He didn't talk to me for a week when I accidentally stepped on one of his wrestling tapes in junior high. Pretty sure this is orders of magnitude worse than that."

Roman chuckled, then looked down at her uneasily. "I hate to ask this, but do you have someone else you can stay with? We could probably find a different room, but anything to avoid ticking Dean off more is probably best..."

"No, it's fine, I know," she said, wiping her eyes on her sleeves. "Give me two minutes and I'll be gone. You should probably go after him, I don't really like to leave him on his own when he's like this..."

"Way ahead of you," Roman said, getting up to leave. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Everything's gonna be okay, alright? You can believe that."

She smiled sadly at his attempt to cheer her up. "I hope so."

After he left she washed her face to make it less obvious that she had been crying, grabbed her bag, and left the room. She tugged her hood down low over her face and pulled out her phone to text Seth.

 **Chloe: What room are you in?**

His response was almost immediate, which would have made her smile if she had been capable of doing so then.

 **Seth: 723**.

She took the stairs two floors down, walking quickly to avoid running into anyone, and knocked on his door a minute later. He opened it and his smile faded when he saw the look on her face and the bag in her hand. "Hey superstar," she said quietly, before her eyes flooded with tears.

He pulled her inside and roughly against his chest, stroking her hair as she started crying again. "Hey, it's okay, I got you," he said soothingly.

"H-he just left," she choked out, dropping her bag and clutching his shirt desperately. "Asked if it was just a one time thing and when I said no he left without saying anything."

"What about Roman?" Seth asked, leading her over to sit on the bed.

"I think he was was kinda upset. Not nearly as much as Dean. I dunno. He stayed behind to tell me that he didn't hate me and that he'd talk to Dean and that everything was gonna be okay."

"Sounds about right. Roman's a good guy."

"Told me he doesn't hate you either, for the record." He shifted uncomfortably at that, and she leaned back to look at him, noticing for the first time that his hair was pulled back in a bun and he had a pair of thick-rimmed glasses on. "You look adorable like this."

He smiled at her. "Think so, do you?"

"Yeah, big buff guy looking like a huge fuckin' nerd really does it for me."

He pouted. "I'm not a nerd."

"You criticized my car decoration because it would be out of place in a game played on broomsticks from a book series about wizards. You're definitely a nerd. It's okay to admit it. Cooler people than you have called themselves nerds."

"Like who?"

"CM Punk," she said, enjoying teasing him, especially because it distracted her.

He moved quickly and pushed her back against the bed, hovering above her. "CM Punk is cooler than me?" he asked slowly. His hand went to a strip of skin exposed by her shirt riding up, stroking it deliberately. "You sure about that?" She nodded, biting her lip as she watched his hand. His fingers slid to the front of her skirt, ghosting across the top of it on her hips. "Really sure?"

She exhaled slowly, shaking her head. "Maybe not." He continued to rub her skin slowly and she closed her eyes, sighing. "As good as that feels... can we not tonight? My mind is sorta all over the place."

His hand withdrew from her stomach immediately, and he planted a kiss on her forehead. "Of course. You planning on sleeping in that?"

She was still wearing her outfit from earlier in the night. "I'm sure it'd make a pretty picture for you, but I'm thinkin' not." She kicked her boots off and unzipped her sweatshirt, and he offered her the shirt he'd been wearing a minute ago. She smiled at him and finished undressing the rest of the way, keeping her underwear on, and slipped the shirt over her head. "I hope you know you're not gettin' this back."

"I've got boxes full of them in my garage back home, you can have fifty more."

"Only if you wear 'em first," she said, sliding into bed beside him.

"Deal." He put his glasses on the nightstand and pulled his hair loose, flicking off the light before settling in behind her and pulling her back against his chest.

"Thank you," she said quietly, and Seth knew she wasn't talking about the t-shirts. "I don't wanna put you out, but nobody else knows except for Brie and I didn't want to bug her and Daniel while they're together, or talk about it in front of Daniel..."

"Hey, don't think like that, it's really okay. Besides, having a beautiful girl in my bed isn't exactly an imposition," he said, smiling into her neck. "Wait. You told Brie?"

"I needed to talk to a neutral party. She's not gonna tell anyone."

"How much did you tell her? I just want to know what I'm dealing with."

Chloe rolled over and smirked. "How did she put it? You, ah, giving me Peace of Mind."

"Ha! That's a good one."

She closed her eyes and snuggled into him, concentrating on his fingers caressing her back, willing it to push everything else from her mind so that she could sleep.

* * *

" _Liar._ "

" _Traitor._ "

" _I trusted you._ "

 _Dean's voice echoed around her. She was kneeling on the floor as he circled around her, disgust written all over his face. Roman was standing in the background, his arms crossed, looking at her with disappointment._

" _I'm sorry," she sobbed, trying to grab for his hand, but she just went through him._

" _Liar. Traitor. I trusted you. Liar. Traitor..."_

Chloe woke up breathing hard. She didn't want to open her eyes in case dream-Dean was still there, sneering at her, hating her. She rolled to her left, her eyes snapping awake when she realized something was wrong. "Seth?" she called softly, sitting up and looking around the hotel room. Empty. She sucked in a deep breath to keep her heart rate down, then got up to look in the bathroom. "You in here?" she asked, flicking the light on even though she knew he wasn't in there. She went back to the bed and sat cross legged on it, hugging a pillow. ' _Stop flipping out, he probably just went out for something,_ ' she admonished herself silently. It didn't help, and she sat there for a couple of minutes, breathing deeply and staring a spot on the floor. Her eyes snapped up when she heard the lock click and the door start to open.

"Chloe? Are you okay?" Seth asked, the light illuminating her on the bed. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Y-yeah. Bad dream woke me up an' you were gone."

"Sorry, I woke up and was thirsty and ran to get some ice for water," he said, holding up the ice bucket and letting the door close.

"It's okay," she said, calming down a bit now that he was back. "I just uh, don't really like the dark. I get kinda freaked out when I'm alone in the dark in a strange place."

She heard the faucet in the bathroom before he came back with two cups of ice water, offering her one. "I'm sorry. I had no idea. I would have switched a light on or something."

"It's okay. There's no way you could've known." She sipped the water gratefully, setting the empty cup on her nightstand. "Thank you."

He opened his arms to her and she moved into them immediately, hugging him tightly. "You want to talk about it?"

She shrugged. "Just my guilty conscience tormenting me."

"I'm sorry. I feel like this is my fault."

"It's not like I tripped an' fell on your dick," she said, shaking her head and feeling laughter rumble through him. "I knew exactly what I was doing. I don't regret it, either. I just can't help wonderin' if there was a different way I coulda handled it."

"Just let me know if there's anything I can do."

"Keep holding me?" she asked softly, and he pulled her more firmly against him.

"Try and get some more sleep," he whispered, kissing her hair. "Gotta be up in a few hours."

* * *

Seth's alarm blared the next morning and Chloe felt a wave of deja vu. "Waking up next to you is nice an' all but I'm not sure if it's worth this," she complained as he shut it off.

"Sorry baby, CrossFit comes with the Seth Rollins experience. These guns don't come from nowhere," he said, flexing exaggeratedly.

"Please tell me you didn't just fuckin' refer to your arms as guns."

"Cheesy cliches are also a part of the Rollins package. You should have read the brochure before buying in."

"I want my money back," she muttered, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Hey, uh, you mind if I drive with you? I kinda lost my ride."

"Yeah, of course." He smiled at her, a smile that made her chest ache and her heart want to dive out of her throat. "I'm gonna jump in the shower and then I'll be ready whenever." He disappeared into the bathroom and she heard the sounds of him brushing his teeth, followed by the sound of the shower turning on. She sifted through her bag to get her own toothbrush and opened the bathroom door quietly, stealing some of his toothpaste. When she was done she shed her clothes and poked her head through the shower curtain.

"Can I join you?" she asked softly. He moved over so that there was room for her to get under the spray. She stood there with her eyes shut for a few moments, letting the water wash over here, basking in the catharsis that a hot shower could offer. Her eyes opened to Seth looking at her, his eyes burning with intensity. She put her arms around his neck and leaned up to kiss him. He responded immediately, his hands going to rest on her hips. They stood there like that for a few minutes, exchanging slow, sweet kisses, and she felt him harden against her stomach.

He broke the kiss gently, leaning his forehead into hers. "As much as I'd love to keep this going, we've got a very long drive in our immediate future and they're not gonna be happy if I'm late for Pay Per View ramp-up."

She nodded, grabbing the conditioner and handing it to him when she had squeezed some out. "How much press stuff do you have today?"

Seth made a face. "Too fucking much. I don't mind meeting the fans but the interviews are tedious. They're all like two minutes long and they ask the same four questions to 'cover the important bases'."

"The life of a superstar is rough," she teased, shutting off the shower when they were both done and taking the towel he offered. They got dressed in silence, exchanging the occasional casual touch as they passed, each one like a jolt of electricity to her heart. They made their way down to the lobby and she stood off to the side while he checked out, looking at her phone. Nothing. She bit her lip, sending a text message to Dean that just said **I'm sorry.** She knew the chances of him even seeing it were slim, but wasn't sure what else to do, and shoved it in the back pocket of her jeans when Seth came over to her.

"Ready to go?" She nodded, and they went out to the parking lot.

* * *

Chloe checked her phone for the hundredth time that day, sighing dejectedly when there were still no messages. Seth glanced over at her. "Still nothing?"

"Nah," she frowned. "Not that I really expect anything. I'm just burning through my battery for no reason."

"Even on a good day Dean's not great at looking at his messages. Usually easier to try to get Roman. Not that that's really an option in this case."

Chloe smiled sadly at him. "You miss them."

"I try not to think about it too much. There isn't much point in dwelling on what you can't change."

She reached over to take his free hand, and he squeezed it gratefully. "You don't know for sure that you can't. You haven't tried."

He laughed bitterly. "You've seen the way they look at me, right? I think I'd have a better chance of talking Punk out of retirement." Chloe bit her lip, disagreeing with him but not pushing her point. Dean refusing to talk to her for fucking Seth didn't give her a strong place to make her argument from. He looked over at her, stroking her hand with the pad of her thumb. "Hey. You wanna grab dinner after I get done with press stuff?"

She met his eyes, continuing to study his silhouette after he turned back to the road. Her heart fluttered with every movement of his thumb. ' _Christ, this is way_ _more intense_ _than I signed up for._ ' "Yeah, I'd like that," she found herself saying, causing him to smile.

* * *

They got to Corpus Christi around 2 in the afternoon, parking the car at the hotel and heading into the lobby. Seth went straight to the desk and booked a room, handing her one of two keys.

"You sure?" she asked, her eyes going from the card to his face.

"Unless you don't want to?"

"No, that's not what I meant, I just don't wanna overstay my welcome."

"I don't see that happening anytime soon," he smiled, heading over to the elevator. She stood there for a minute, dazed by what he had said, before jogging to catch up with him. They got to the room and he immediately started changing his clothes. "I hate to get here and run, but I gotta go get my training in before all of the press stuff."

"It's cool, I have to head over to the arena. It's my first Pay Per View so Nate wants to do run-throughs and a bunch of prep so that everything goes smoothly."

"Sounds exhilarating." She stuck her tongue out at him. He finished lacing up his shoes and grabbed a shirt, throwing it over his shoulder and moving to stand in front of her. "I'll see you later?"

She swallowed, dragging her eyes up from his chest to his face. He looked at her with amusement. "Yeah. Just send me a message or whatever when you're done." He leaned down to kiss her, his lips warm and soft, his teeth grazing her lip lightly before he pulled away and went to leave. "Tease!" she called at his back, unable to keep a smile from blooming on her face.

Chloe made sure she had her phone and room key, leaving after him and going to the elevator. She got in alone, hitting the button for the lobby and checking her phone yet again. The elevator stopped and opened, and she froze when she saw who was getting in with her. Roman and Dean.

Roman came in first, standing next to her, and Dean followed him, his eyes narrowing at her before he turned around and ignored her completely. She winced, feeling like someone had doused her in ice water. ' _You really know how to hit where it hurts, Ambrose,_ ' she thought sadly, staring at the ground and glad that the ride was short. Dean tore out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened, and Roman gave her a sympathetic look before following after him.

She trudged slowly after them, putting as much distance as she could so that she wouldn't catch up, when she felt her phone buzz.

 **Roman: I'm sorry. I'm working on him but u know how he can get.**

 **Chloe: There's nothing for you to apologize about. I fucked up. Thanks, though. I appreciate it.**

 **Roman: Chin up baby girl.**

She thought about asking him if he knew whether or not Dean had gotten her text, but decided against it because there could be no answer to that question that wouldn't bum her out further. She entered the arena and headed for Nate's office, flipping her brain into work mode and off of Dean.


	6. One Look And My Heartbeat Stops

**A/N:** Thank you **Bajor10** , **calwitch** , **angelsdee327** , and **Raquel the writer** for the reviews 3 and as always to everyone who faved, followed, or checked it out.

Just a heads up, more explicit stuff later in this chapter.

* * *

Chloe emerged six hours later, her brain fried. She had been too new when Payback happened and Nate had handled it, but now that she had shown her competence they trusted her to run Elimination Chamber. She and Nate had gone through every second of the current plan and discussed which matches were most likely to go over and what could be cut or reduced, complete with white board diagrams that looked like football plays. She rubbed her eyes and pulled out her phone to text Seth.

 **Chloe: That offer for dinner still available? I have schedules and maps burned into my eyes.**

 **Seth: And I thought my day was bad. I'll meet you at the back entrance of the arena in five :)**

She pushed the back door open and inhaled deeply. ' _I never thought I'd miss fresh air so much._ ' Seth came around the corner a few minutes later, his glasses on and the hood of his sweatshirt up. "Hey superstar," she smiled tiredly, leaning into the hug he offered.

"Hey boss lady. Figured out what time you're gonna yell at everyone tomorrow?"

She snorted. "Wouldn't have to yell if you all would pay attention."

"Just trying to make sure you still have a job."

"Thoughtful of you." He let her go and jerked his head towards the street, and they set off walking. "How was your day?"

He shrugged. "Basically like I expected. If you waited until I was asleep and asked me how I thought the match was going to go tomorrow I'm pretty sure the words would just unconsciously come out of my mouth."

"Neat party trick. At least you got to see the light of day. Nate gets like... scary intense at Pay Per View time. I asked if I could have two minutes to use the bathroom and I thought he was gonna pop a blood vessel in his eye."

"Nothing like you at all," he grinned, earning an elbow in the ribs. "In here."

He led her into a dimly lit restaurant, and the hostess took them to a small, secluded table in the back. There were a couple of candles and a single rose in a glass vase on the table. "So... this is unexpectedly romantic," she said, cocking an eyebrow at him once they'd been left alone.

He shrugged casually, meeting her gaze. "I just wanted to give you a nice night out, you seemed like you could use it. You don't need to read anything into it that you don't want to."

Her stomach did flipflops when he looked at her, and she gave him a small nod. "...okay. Thank you."

They talked while they ate. Chloe found herself laughing and smiling throughout, and it was just so fucking easy. She felt stabs of guilt at enjoying herself when she was in the middle of fighting with her best friend, but scolded herself that they were irrational and did her best to ignore them. Afterward instead of going back to the hotel they wandered the city for a while, and when he reached out to take her hand she didn't hesitate to lace her fingers through his.

He pushed her back up against a building to kiss her, and she reciprocated eagerly, relishing the feeling of his body against hers and his tongue in her mouth. "Y'know," she said, when they paused for a break, his forehead resting on hers, "I can't say I anticipated this goin' anywhere beyond fucking in your hotel room."

"No?"

"Well, I was kinda supposed to hate your guts by default," she smiled, another pang of guilt surging through her. "But you kinda fucked that up for me by being so fuckin' likable. Once you stopped being a complete asshole, anyway."

"So complimentary." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "So where _is_ this going outside of fucking in my hotel room?"

She eyed him warily. "How do you feel about 'let's just take it one day at a time'? Kinda a lot going on right now. An' I've only really known you for like two and a half weeks and spent most of that time feeling like I should punch you in the face."

He laughed quietly. "You're right. Feels like it's been a lot longer, though."

Chloe felt her chest swell. ' _Yeah, it has._ ' She swallowed hard and tugged on his hand. "C'mon superstar, let's get back. We got a hell of a day tomorrow and I do still like the fucking in your hotel room part."

He squeezed her hand, his gaze burning into her. "Who am I to refuse an offer like that?"

* * *

Chloe's alarm went off at six the next morning, and she grinned triumphantly as Seth gave her the evil eye when she shut it off. "Sucks, don't it?"

"Please don't tell me you woke me up at six just for revenge."

"Nah. Definitely considered it though." He pouted. "Just wanted to have time to grab breakfast before I have to hustle off to the arena to make sure that every single little piece of equipment is in place before everything else I gotta do."

"Sucks to be you," he mumbled, rolling onto his stomach and hugging his pillow.

He was in the same position when she got out of the shower half an hour later, and when she was dressed and ready she crawled back across the bed to him. She traced a line of kisses along his jaw, eliciting a sleepy smile from him. "See you later," she whispered in his ear, grazing her teeth across his earlobe before getting up.

"If you had done that earlier I would have gotten up," he whined, lust clouding his eyes as he opened them to look at her.

"Kinda the point, babe," she smirked. "I'll find you later."

"Sounds promising," he yawned, smiling sleepily at her as she left the room.

* * *

Half an hour before Elimination Chamber's kick off show was scheduled to start, Chloe had quadruple-checked everything and Cody and Zack had sworn up and down that they would be ready to go on cue. She knew that she would still want to check with them a couple minutes beforehand, but that gave her some free time before the show started, and she made her way over to Seth's locker room. She clicked her headset off and knocked on his door, bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

He opened the door and she slipped inside right away, pushing it closed and locking it for him. "Hey superstar. You busy?"

"No, I'm good for a whil-" he started to say, before she dropped her clipboard and headset on a bench and attached her lips to his. After his initial surprise he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close.

"What's...this...for?" he asked in between kisses.

"Wanted to give you a little pre-show gift," she said huskily, sliding her hands down his sides to the top of his pants. His shirt wasn't on yet – clearly she'd caught him in the middle of getting dressed – which made her job easier. She popped the button off of his jeans and yanked everything down, exposing his already hard cock. Dropping to her knees, she wrapped her hand around the base of him and put the rest eagerly in her mouth.

He moaned gutturally in surprise, threading his fingers through her hair. " _Fuck_ , Chloe... that feels amazing."

She dragged her tongue along the underside of his erection as she pulled almost all the way off, before slowly taking him back inside. She moved her hand away and relaxed her throat, bringing those last couple of inches in her mouth, feeling him hit the back of her throat. She looked up at him as she swirled her tongue around the head and saw him look back down at her though half lidded eyes, breathing raggedly. She put her hand on top of the one he had on the back of her head and pressed into it a few times, letting him know it was okay, and he started to move on his own, fucking her throat.

Chloe felt warmth pool in her belly as he thrusted into her, relishing the feeling of his hand on the back of her head, his cock sliding in and out of her mouth. She dug her fingers into his hips, rubbing her tongue along the bottom of his head, pushing him closer to the edge. "Fuckin'... I'm gonna..." he warned, his voice getting lost in his throat as he filled up her mouth with his release. She stayed put while he rode it out, waiting until she was sure he was finished before she carefully moved off of him. She swallowed deeply a couple times, glancing up at him and smiling at the blissed-out look on his face. He grabbed her hands to pull her up before pulling his pants back up. "Nice to see you too."

"Nothin' like checking for the fifth time that yes, the chamber does lower and raise okay, to make a girl go 'gee I really want a dick in my mouth'."

"Guess I'm lucky I'm the first guy you ran into, then," he teased, his eyes twinkling as he laced his fingers through hers.

"Well, I saw Ryback, but I'm kinda afraid that he'd start yelling 'FEED ME MORE' when he came." He laughed loudly, and she grinned, glancing at the time. "Shit. I gotta go. Showtime in ten. I'll come find you later to make sure you're ready to rock."

"See ya," he said, kissing her softly before letting her go. Once she was in the hall she took a minute to make sure her appearance didn't scream 'I just sucked someone off' before going back into one of the bigger locker rooms where Cody and Zack were assigned. "Ryder, Rhodes, almost go time!"

* * *

Elimination Chamber was going off without a hitch. She congratulated Neville on his win and he thanked her enthusiastically, and she noted that all of the men in the Intercontinental title match were all out in the ring, which only left the last match. The one she had been dreading all night. She looked in the direction of Seth's locker room, sighing and deciding that she couldn't deal with facing him before his match with Dean. She opted to text him instead.

 **Chloe: Hey, you there?**

 **Seth: Yeah, what's up?**

 **Chloe: You're up in fifteen**

 **Seth: Thx, I'll be ready**

She tucked her phone back in her pocket, steeling herself and setting off to find Dean. She passed by his locker room and catering, not seeing him in either place. She decided to check outside, where he hung out sometimes to blow off steam before a match.

Chloe pushed the door open softly, poking her head out to look around, and sure enough she saw Dean shadow boxing in the glow of one of the lights on a building. She approached him slowly, stopping about fifteen feet away before clearing her throat. He looked up at her briefly before turning back to his shadow. "Your match is set to start in twenty," she said softly, her voice carrying in the quiet night. He grunted, and she bit her lip. "Don't be late, okay?"

"Like I'd miss my chance to kick that prick's ass," she heard him mutter. She thought about responding but decided against it, turning around to go back inside. "Are you happy?"

She froze at his question, looking back at him. He had knocked off the shadow boxing and was just looking at her. "You hatin' my guts doesn't exactly have me over the moon, no," she said bitterly.

"Why'd you do it?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Hell, Dean, I don't know," she said tiredly. "'Cause he's hot and I hadn't gotten laid in a while? And once he pulled his head out of his ass he was real nice an' sweet, unlike most of the other jerks that call me up at 2 am and then awkwardly kick me out the next morning."

"Yeah, well, I thought he was a real swell until he turned traitor."

"He seems pretty torn up about the whole thing..."

His eyes flashed angrily and Chloe immediately knew that she had said the wrong thing. "Says he's torn up about it, huh? Probably says all kinds of shit about how much he regrets it? Over a year, he told us he was our brother, that he was always gonna have me an' Roman's backs. 'Til havin' our backs turned into stabbin' us in 'em. Open your fuckin' eyes, Chloe, you're just another way for him to twist the knife in deeper 'cause he's run out of other ways to get to me."

She knew that he was just lashing out because he was still cut up about what Seth had done, and to a lesser extent what she had done, and that deep down somewhere underneath his anger he was worried about her and wanted to protect her. She really did. But that knowledge didn't stop her eyes from flooding with tears, her chest burning with a mixture of sadness and rage. "Get fucked, Ambrose. Good to know that all you think I'm worth is someone fucking me to get to you."

Ripples of regret flickered over his face. "That's not what I-" he started to say, but she had already turned on her heel and gone back inside. She went to find a bathroom so that she could wash her face, but as soon as she got inside her tears just started flowing faster. She leaned against the sink, trying to breathe to calm herself down, and heard one of the toilets flush. "Sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here," she mumbled, making no effort to move as Natalya came out of one of the stalls.

"You okay, sweetheart?" Nattie asked, washing her hands before rubbing Chloe's back sympathetically.

"Yes. No. I don't fuckin' know. Dean's a fuckin' asshole."

"Is he upset about the Seth thing?"

"Yeah, I guess, but he's- wait, how do you know about that?" she groaned.

The blonde bit her lip. "Don't be mad at her, but Brie may have let something slip and I pulled on the thread 'til she told me. She feels awful about it, though. And I swear I'm the only one." Chloe buried her face in her hands. "Hey now, it'll be alright. Here." Nat handed her a tissue, and she dried off her face. "You guys get into it real bad?"

"It wasn't pretty. He said some horrible stuff, I told him to go fuck himself. And I don't even have time to sit in here and cry about it because I have to go make sure that the asshole goes and does what he's supposed to do so I can keep my fuckin' job."

Nattie pulled her into a hug. "Sometimes people have to have it out before they can actually work things out. You'll be okay. And in the meantime, go out there looking awesome and show him that if he's gonna be a jerk then you're just fine without him.

"Thanks Nat, you rock," Chloe smiled. "I gotta run before my ass gets fired."

"Good luck!"

She ran to the curtain and saw Seth standing there, waiting to make his entrance. "Careful tonight, Dean's out for blood," she told him quietly. He looked at her quizzically, but his music hit and he didn't have time to ask her to elaborate. Dean stomped over once he was gone, looking like he wanted to say something, but she steadfastly ignored him. She noticed that his knuckles were kind of battered, like he had been punching the wall outside, but she forced herself to ignore that too, and then it was time for him to make his entrance. Once he had gone through the curtain she let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, and turned her attention to a screen to watch the match.

Overall, it wasn't any worse than other matches they had had recently. She winced when she saw Dean rake his nails across Seth's back on the top rope. ' _That's gonna leave a mark, he's so bad about cutting the fuckin' things._ ' When Dean got the pinfall she wasn't sure how to feel about the outcome – even moreso when Lilian announced that Seth would remain the champion because of a disqualification.

But then Dean grabbed the belt and ran off into the crowd with it, cackling with Roman, and for a minute she forgot that she was mad at him and just laughed. She maintained her grin all the way back to Seth's locker room, collapsing into a fit of giggles when he opened the door and she saw the pout on his face.

"It's not _that_ funny," he insisted, still frowning as he moved to let her in.

"Oh come on. I wanna kick his ass right now but he deserved that. Pushing the referee in his way was a chickenshit move."

"Hunter's orders," he muttered, changing out of his ring gear as she sat down on the bench. "Wait, why do you want to kick his ass? I thought he was mad at you."

Chloe pursed her lips. "Got into it with him when I had to track him down to get him to the match on time. Went from asking me why I did it with his sad puppy eyes to tellin' me that all I was for you was a way to get to him."

He sat down next to her, cupping her cheek. "You know that's not true, right? I have no desire to press his buttons anymore."

She leaned into his hand, peering up at him. "I know. Doesn't make it hurt any less that he'd say it."

"I know. He says a lot of dumb stuff when he gets mad. Doesn't make it okay, but I don't think he meant it."

"Maybe," she said sadly.

He leaned down to give her a brief, sweet kiss. "Lemme finish getting changed and we can get out of here?"

"Sure thing, superstar."

* * *

 **A/N:** I know, I'm sorry. I promise Dean will get over himself soon! It's always darkest before the dawn, as they say.


	7. Your Love's a Fucking Drag

A/N: I am _so_ sorry that this took so long to get out. Writer's block bit me in a major way, I'm hoping the next one won't take nearly as long. Thanks for being patient 3

Thanks a ton to Raquel the writer, angelsdee327, my guest reviewer, and raaeebrucee for the reviews, they really make my day. Also to everyone who followed, fave'd, and read.

I also just realized that fucked up a bunch of my formatting, so I'll be fixing that today . Sorry if that was confusing as hell the first time you were reading this.

* * *

A week went by and Chloe hadn't heard anything else from Dean. He ignored all of her texts and calls and she could never find him at the arenas, even though she knew he was there. She had resorted to texting Roman whenever Dean needed to be somewhere, and Roman made sure that Dean didn't miss anything. After what he had said the previous Monday she oscillated between crushing sadness and white-hot rage whenever she thought about him, so she distracted herself with work and Seth to do as little of that as possible.

She was on the bed writing an email to Nate the morning of Raw when Seth sat behind her on the bed. "Man, they're really working you to the bone," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I made the mistake of settin' high expectations early," she mumbled, shutting her laptop and leaning back into him. "Ugh, you're all sweaty from the gym."

"All for you, baby," he said, rubbing his damp face in her neck.

She struggled to fight out of his arms, laughing. "Gross! You suck, Rollins."

"Just trying to ensure that you'll have to get in the shower with me."

She gave him an exasperated look as he pulled her up towards the bathroom. "All you had to do was ask, y'know."

"I don't like leaving things to chance," he smiled, tugging her inside and kissing her.

* * *

"Kofi, Xavier, you're killin' me here! You have two minutes before you need to be out there!"

"Sorry Chlo! Stay positive, we'll make it!" Xavier called to her as they ran out of catering. She collapsed onto a couch, pinching the bridge of her nose and groaning.

Raw had been hell. With just two weeks between Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank there was a lot that needed to get done, and when she finally had a spare minute she flopped exhausted onto a couch. Being able to rest her feet felt like heaven and she never wanted to get up, but she forced herself off the couch to go find Seth. He was set up to be in the main event that night, but wasn't in his locker room when she got there. The clock was ticking and she started to search the rest of the backstage area, getting frantic.

Finally she spotted him talking to Hunter and Stephanie in a corner and groaned. She'd run into them a couple times and things were fine and civil, but she didn't really know how to feel about them being directly involved with Seth destroying The Shield. But time was wasting, so she mustered her courage and approached the group.

They stopped talking as she reached them. They were quiet for a minute, Hunter and Steph looking at her expectantly, before Seth gestured around him. "We're a little busy here, can we help you with something?" he snapped.

Her eyes narrowed. ' _What the fuck?_ ' Her first instinct was to yell back at him but she knew that doing that in front of what were technically her bosses wouldn't be her smartest career move. "Your match starts soon."

"Don't you think I know that? I'm not like the rest of these idiots that you have to babysit, I don't need anyone to fucking coddle me." He crossed his arms, looking down at her in irritation, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or hit him.

"Just doing my job," she said icily.

"Well go do it somewhere else, _princess_ ," he sneered. The return of the hateful nickname nearly broke her resolve completely, and she nodded stiffly at Hunter and Stephanie before turning and walking away from them as quickly as possible.

"You really shouldn't be so rude to the backstage employees," she heard Steph say behind her, and she choked back a sob. ' _Christ, even Stephanie thinks he was over the line._ '

She composed herself on the way to Nate's office. "I'm taking off early," she told him, dropping her headset on his desk. "Not feeling well."

He looked surprised but nodded. "Sure, go ahead, show's basically wrapped up anyway. See you tomorrow, feel better."

"Thanks," she said, walking quickly towards the exit and letting her eyes flood with tears as soon as she was outside and alone. ' _Fuck crying and fuck both of the assholes that keep makin' me do it,_ ' she thought angrily, taking the long way back to the hotel. She realized her mistake when she looked at the time and saw how long it had taken her to get back, crossing her fingers that Seth had gotten held up at the arena and she could get her stuff without seeing him.

No such luck. He was sitting on the bed when she got there, and looked up when the door opened.

"Chloe, please, let me-"

"No, Seth. I really, _really_ don't wanna hear it. Just let me get my stuff and go."

He kept trying to talk while she packed. "I just... I can't... Hunter and Steph... they know you're friends with..."

She fought the urge to scream. "Yeah, because Dean an' me have been real close lately, right? You keep sayin' that you're sad and sorry about what you did. Fuckin' act like it."

She heard him sigh heavily. "I have to act like that with them. I didn't have a choice."

She zipped up her bag, finally looking at him, rage letting her ignore the sorrow that was written all over his face. "That's pathetic and I'm pretty fuckin' sure you know that. You did have a choice. You chose to betray Dean and Roman to get the Authority behind you and you chose to act the way you did earlier tonight. Even Steph thought you were outta line. Don't tell me you didn't have a fuckin' choice. Stop confusing not havin' a choice with makin' the wrong fuckin' one."

When he didn't have a response for her she threw her bag on her shoulder and stormed out. She intended to go down to the lobby to get a different room, but only made it down two flights of stairs before the effort at holding her tears back made her chest feel like it was going to rip apart. So she sat down in the hallway, her face in her knees, trying to muffle her sobs so that nobody in their rooms would hear her and come investigate.

She wasn't sure how long she was there before she heard a familiar voice above her. "Chlo?" She looked up slowly, seeing Roman looking down at her, an ice bucket in one hand. "Shit, baby girl, what's wrong?" he asked, kneeling down so he was eye level with her.

"I..." she tried to say, her ragged throat protesting and sending her into a coughing fit instead.

Roman's eyes narrowed. "Jesus, what did that fucker do? Come on." He pulled her up, his arm around her shoulder, leading her down the hallway. She thought about protesting but she was too exhausted, so she allowed him to take her into his room at the end of the hall.

"Ro, what the fuck?" Dean protested when he saw who Roman was bringing in with him.

"Not the time, Dean," Roman warned, jerking his head in Chloe's direction. Dean's eyes immediately softened and he scooted to the edge of the bed, making room for Roman and Chloe to sit down.

"What did the fucker do?" Dean asked, causing her to let out a dry laugh.

"You guys are two peas in a pod, anyone ever tell you that?"

Dean gave Roman a wide-eyed look and Roman just shook his head. Roman rubbed her back soothingly and Dean wasn't glaring daggers at her, so she slowly started to calm down and recounted what had happened. "I might have overreacted," she said quietly, picking at a loose thread in the bedspread.

"No. Fuck him." Roman's voice was some magical combination of strong enough to discourage disagreement but soft enough to be comforting. "That's not the kind of shit you should have to put up with. Seth can go to hell, we've got you."

"Uh huh," she said doubtfully, avoiding Dean's gaze.

Roman gave the other man a meaningful look. "I'm gonna go get some more ice, stuff from before's all melted now."

"Sorry," Chloe mumbled.

He kissed her head, and his voice was so tender and loving that she thought it might break her again. "Don't apologize, sweetheart. It's not a big deal. I'll be back."

There were a couple of painfully awkward minutes of silence after he left before Dean and Chloe looked at each other and spoke at the same time. "I'm sorry. Wait, what are you sorry for?"

Normally the simultaneous talking would have caused her to laugh but now it just made her feel hollow. "I shouldn't have done what I did. And I really shouldn't have lied to you about it. I fucked up."

Dean shook his head. "It's... fine. I got mad, stormed off, yelled, the patented Ambrose fit. An' I was outta line with the stuff I said the other night. I shoulda actually talked to you. I wish you'd been straight with me from the beginning, but I can't say I really blame you given my reaction. Sometimes I forget how likable the little prick is when he's not busy double-crossing you and hatin' your guts."

"Or bein' a dick for no fuckin' reason."

He pulled her into a crushing hug that felt like home. "I'm sorry darlin'. Want me to go put a dent in his skull?"

She laughed into his chest. "Can't have you gettin' fired, not when you're gonna be the next WWE champion."

"That's for sure, I don't wanna have to give that baby up. Wait, he didn't wear it while you two..."

"Ambrose!" she shrieked, elbowing him in the ribs. "Don't be fuckin' gross."

"I had to check! Seems like the kinda thing he would do."

"Like you wouldn't."

"Probably would, yeah."

She made a face that he couldn't see before throwing herself back into his arms. "Missed you, jerk."

"You too, squirt."

Roman came back in at that moment. "Oh thank god. I figured there was a 50/50 chance that you two would be tearing each other's heads off when I got back here."

"Nothin' but love here. Get in on this, big man," Dean said. Roman hesitated, then dove onto the bed and wrapped them both in a bear hug.

"Thanks, you guys," she said, her voice muffled by Dean's shirt.

"I've known you longer than I've had chest hair. I always got your back, even when it might not seem like it."

"Interestin' choice of words, but thanks, I guess."

"You two are ruining the moment," Roman complained.

"He started it."

"Shhh, stop ruining the moment," Dean said, hugging her tighter so that her face was pressed into his chest and she couldn't respond. She thought about fighting him, but she was so happy that she got to hug him again that she let it go.

* * *

Chloe forced her eyes open the next morning to the sight of Dean's face two inches from hers, staring at her. She screamed and flinched away, falling off of the bed. "The fuck Ambrose, what's your fuckin' damage?" Dean was too busy laughing to answer her, and she glared at Roman when he joined in. "You just lost your position as my favorite."

"Wait, he was your favorite? Since when? I'm supposed to be your favorite!" Dean said indignantly.

"Since he doesn't pull shit like that, jackass. But now it's neither of you."

"What other options do you have?!"

"Dolph," she grinned, enjoying watching Dean's face twitch in annoyance. "Or maybe Randy. He's always been a peach to me."

"Sure, if you like fuckin' psychos that think they're snakes," Dean muttered.

"Better'n fuckin' psychos that light your carpet on fire."

"That was _once_!"

"Seems like one too many times, bro," Roman chimed in, still chuckling.

"Who asked you?"

"Don't think his opinion is an uncommon one, Dean-o."

"Told you not to call me that."

They continued to bicker on the way down to the car. "I fixed your car for free when you were 17, I'm thinkin' that should solidify me as your favorite forever."

"You fixed it because _you_ weren't looking while you were driving it and ran over a box on the road that threw somethin' in the engine! You don't get brownie points for unfucking your own mistakes."

Roman came up behind her and handed her a muffin. "Here, snagged this for you from the breakfast buffet."

"Thanks, Ro!" Chloe said, beaming at him. She waved it in Dean's face. "This is how you become the favorite. Welcome back to the top, big guy."

Dean sputtered angrily and she laughed, until she looked across the parking lot and saw the one person she had been hoping to avoid. When Seth's eyes met hers it knocked the breath out of her, and his expression was unreadable. Dean and Roman followed her gaze when they noticed she had gone quiet. Roman put his arm around her and kept walking towards the car. "Just ignore him, baby girl. It'll get easier."

"Offer to deck him still stands," Dean said, taunting Seth by waving his title belt at him. Seth's brow furrowed, but he got into his own car and drove off.

"I don't need you to deck him, I can do that myself," she sighed. "The problem is that I don't want to."

"I do," Dean growled, popping the trunk on the car and throwing his stuff in it. "I'll settle for the fact that he got his ass handed to him by the security munchkins last night."

"That was basically thanks to you, it's kinda like you kicked his ass by proxy," Roman pointed out, climbing into the driver's seat.

"If I retire tomorrow it'll be my greatest accomplishment."

"Dream big," Chloe smiled faintly.

Dean grabbed something out of the car and walked back over to her. "Here, you uh, left this in the last rental. Figured you'd want it back." He handed her the rearview mirror Snitch ornament that she traveled with, the one that Seth had commented on in their first bit of common ground.

"Thanks Dean," she said softly, pulling him into a brief but tight hug.

He let out an 'oomph' of surprise, kissing the crown of her head. "Sure thing, darlin'." He let her go and got in next to Roman.

She got into the back of the car and checked her email for the evening's schedule as Roman took them out of New Orleans. "Ro, you're booked in a six man tag match in the main event tonight."

He groaned. "Let me guess. Me and five other guys from the Money in the Bank match?"

"'Fraid so. Dolph's fightin' Seth but it's all the rest of you."

"Leave it to booking to find a way to get me to root for Ziggler," Dean said, kicking his feet up on the dashboard.

"What do you got against him, anyway?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "He's _nice_."

"I don't mesh well with nice."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" She crossed her arms and Roman reached over to flick Dean's head, his eyes never leaving the road.

"Hey, not cool man! You guys know what I mean. He's _too_ nice. I don't trust people like that."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You don't trust anybody."

"Outside this car, not really, no. Hasn't done much for me in the past."

She frowned but didn't have anything with which to refute his statement. "You're not booked for any matches tonight. You get to go run your mouth at the start of the show, though."

"My favorite activity."

The car ride to Lafayette was relatively short, and once they had checked into the hotel Dean and Roman left for the gym. Chloe walked slowly over to the arena, going over her schedule again. ' _Ugh, I should tell Seth that he needs to be ready to go at the beginning of the show._ ' She checked everything else that she could think to check, putting it off as long as possible, but by the time she reached the arena she knew that she had to suck it up and get it over with. She found an equipment trunk to sit on top of in a hallway and scrolled through her contacts.

 **Chloe: You need to be ready to go at the beginning of the show. Dean's gonna say some stuff and you're supposed to be there. You also have a match in the middle of the show. I'll buzz you 15 minutes before.**

 **Seth: Thank you.**

 **Seth: I'm sorry**

 **Chloe: Can we not do this right now? I have a lot of work to do before the show.**

 **Seth: ...okay.**

 **Seth: I'm glad that you and Dean made up.**

' _Only because you_ _suck._ ' Chloe scowled at her phone before shoving it in her pocket. She couldn't deal with him being nice. She knew that if she let him keep talking it would be too easy for her to forget how he had acted, so she tabled it until later and hoped she could avoid running into him that night.

* * *

A/N: Just an FYI, I've been sticking to the actual results of matches and storylines and stuff 'til now but we're gonna be veering off the rails pretty soon here.


	8. Love Me or Leave Me or Rip Me Apart

**A/N:** Sorry again for the wait! I have a good amount of the next chapter written so hopefully it actually won't be forever 'til the next one... Thanks to **Raquel the writer** , **angelsdee327** , **calwitch** , **finish-her** , and **raaeebrucee** for the reviews! You guys are so sweet and seriously help spike my motivation. And also thanks to anyone else that followed/fave'd/read. Also I changed my username, hope that doesn't throw anyone off 3

* * *

After his promo Dean stayed by her side pretty much the whole night, determined to cheer her up. Or maybe he was just making up for lost time, but she didn't mind either way. While Seth was having his match with Dolph she had a little bit of downtime, so they sat down to watch one of the monitors.

"Where're the gremlins?" Chloe asked, kicking her feet up onto his lap.

He pulled a face but made no effort to move her. "Dunno. Not with him. He had a handicap match with 'em yesterday, it was a huge thing. What, were you sleepin' or somethin'?"

"Two pay per views in a month hasn't given me a lotta time to pay attention to what you clowns are doin'. I just read the names and the times. 'Sides, I was kinda distracted at the end of the show last night."

He noticed her voice fall with the last sentence and squeezed her shin softly. "Aww, you missed me pourin' popcorn on Rollins's head. Well, knucklehead over there has been pickin' fights with mommy and daddy and yellin' about how he doesn't need 'em anymore. Which worked out for me, 'cause now I get a ladder match title shot on Sunday. Not sure how good his solo act is gonna work out for him."

"Huh," she said, wincing when Seth gave Dolph a particularly hard shove onto the mat. "How long's that been goin' on?"

Dean shrugged. "After Elimination Chamber. Nobody's too happy with the way he won. An' they shouldn't be, it was bullshit."

"Yeah," she agreed, losing all interest in watching the match and seeing them hurt each other. "Hey, I gotta go double check on Paige and Alicia, you wanna come with?"

Dean frowned when Seth got the pinfall. "Lead the way, darlin'. This just got disappointing."

They found the women already ready to go and standing by the curtain. The Divas generally made her life a little bit easier – Chloe thought it was probably because they were always so excited to get matches that they were raring to go. She would have preferred them as difficult to wrangle as the guys and out there more often, but it wasn't her place to fight that battle. Seth and Dolph came out from behind the curtain while they were talking to Alicia.

Dolph threw a sweaty arm around Chloe, flashing his megawatt smile at her. "Hey sugar, how's it hanging?"

"Better before you draped yourself on me and made me all fuckin' sweaty," she joked, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Babe, there are a thousand more fun ways that I could think of to get you all sweaty," he winked.

She snorted a laugh and Dean rolled his eyes. "It's a wonder you get girls to go home with you, Ziggler. Your pickup lines sound like they came outta some crappy book."

"Hey, some chicks are into that." Dolph gave Chloe a loud, wet kiss on her cheek and slipped off of her, making a 'call me' motion with his hand as he walked backwards away from them.

Dolph's ridiculousness was the right kind of silly to cheer her up a bit, but it was promptly ruined when she noticed Seth watching them from about fifteen feet away, trying and failing to make it look like he was just checking his phone. Dean followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes when he saw Seth. He hooked his arm through Chloe's and led her in the opposite direction from where Seth was standing. "C'mon darlin', let's go find Roman and the rest of the guys in the last match."

She nodded and tried to put Seth out of her mind in favor of getting through the night. She spotted Kane and Sheamus talking in a corner, and Sheamus gave her a wave to let her know that they knew what was up. She and Dean wandered into catering to see who was there. The other four men were milling around in various parts of the room, and she opened up both of her palms at them to signify that they had ten minutes. They all nodded at her in turn, and she and Dean went to sit down with Roman.

She eyed his sandwich with a crease in her brow. "Don't get a stomach cramp out there."

"That's a myth, baby girl. I'll be fine," he said through a mouthful. "I appreciate the concern, though."

"Appreciate it by not talkin' with food in your mouth." He laughed as she wrinkled her nose.

"Got any big plans for the days off?" Dean asked her, stealing a couple chips off of Roman's plate.

She shrugged, crossing out the last line on her schedule. "Starin' at the ceiling in my folks' empty house and fielding a thousand emails from Nate about last minute schedule changes."

"They still on vacation?"

"I think they were back from Ontario for like three days before they jetted off to Cabo to enjoy the summer sun."

"Sounds about right. Anyway, as fun as sittin' around bein' sad by yourself on your days off sounds..."

Chloe groaned, burying her face in her arms on the table. "Way to make me sound even more pathetic than I feel, Ambrose."

"I just call 'em like I see 'em."

"As this jackass was trying to say," Roman interrupted, "you should scrap the pity party and come down to Florida with us."

"Maybe I like my pity party," she replied, her voice muffled.

Roman put a hand on her shoulder. "Then at least come have it at my house. We'll leave you alone if you keep the bedroom door shut and if you get sick of being alone then we'll be right downstairs to keep you company."

"'sides, you can check your email while you're sittin' by the pool instead of surrounded by reminders of your awkward teenage years."

" _Our_ awkward teenage years, Ambrose," she reminded him with a scowl. "There are plenty of pictures of you with a terrible teenager mustache and a mullet on the mantle."

"That information was never s'posed to leave that house. I thought we were friends."

"Does this mean you'll come?" Roman asked, stopping them before they started.

Chloe sighed heavily. "Yeah, alright."

Roman pressed a kiss to her temple and stood up to go. "Atta girl. I'll see you guys when I'm done kicking ass out there."

Chloe took advantage of the time before the tag match to drop off her stuff at Nate's office and check in. He was manic from pay per view prep and didn't have many words to spare, promising her that they'd talk tomorrow. She and Dean headed back to the quiet corner where they'd been watching the monitors earlier and settled in to watch the main event.

Dean put his arm around her shoulder – she seemed to have spent a lot of time there that night – and pulled her head down onto his chest. "You doin' okay?" he mumbled, leaning his cheek against the top of her head.

"I guess. It just hurts," she said quietly, snuggling against him. "I thought... I don't know what I fuckin' thought. That he cared or somethin', at least a little bit."

"He's a dumb asshole who keeps throwin' away the best things in his life. Me an' Ro got you. Maybe you could use Ziggler as a rebound, he seems eager enough."

She laughed derisively. "You're kiddin', right? I like him well enough an' he's fun to flirt with but that's about it for that."

"Thank god. Wasn't really thrilled with the idea, just wanted to be supportive."

"I know." She covered the hand he had on her shoulder with one of her own and squeezed his fingers. "Damn, Ro's tearin' the house down out there."

"'Course he is," Dean grunted proudly. They both groaned when Xavier and Big E jumped in to intervene, ending the match in a disqualification. Dean started to push up off of the couch and she jumped onto his back, gripping his hips with her thighs and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She heard him sigh but he hooked his arms under her knees to hold her up. "We really doin' this?"

"Less talkin', more walkin'."

"Only so you can get a glimpse of how us taller folk live."

She scowled at the back of his head. "I'm not that short, jackass."

"I've got like a foot on you. You're practically a munchkin."

" _Eleven_ inches," she said indignantly, kicking him in the thigh gently.

"Kick me again and I'll drop you on your ass, Lockett."

Dean kicked open the door to the locker room and they found Roman in there, pulling a shirt over his head. He looked over at them with amusement. "What's it like being tall, Chlo?"

"Fuck both of ya, I'm just gonna go home."

"Aww, don't be like that. No more short jokes, I promise."

"I don't," Dean said, tightening his grip on her legs so that she couldn't kick him again.

She sighed. "One out of two ain't bad. But can we just like, cancel our hotel reservation and split? Be nice to sleep somewhere a little more home-like."

"Sure thing. Let's roll out." Dean set her down gently and the three of them made their way out to the parking lot. She saw a familiar shock of blond hair out of the corner of her eye and burned up all of her willpower not to look over in that direction, instead getting assaulted by mental images of running her fingers through it and clenching it in her fist. ' _Thanks brain. Way to be a pal._ '

Chloe slept most of the way to Pensacola, waking up a couple of times when the road was bumpy or when Dean put on a song that was way louder than he anticipated. They pulled in around one thirty and Roman woke her up by shaking her gently. "Chlo? Wake up, you're not gonna be happy if you sleep all night out here." She stumbled up the stairs to the bedroom she had claimed the few other times she'd stayed here, Dean tossing in her bag after her, and managed to shed most of her clothes before falling into bed and into a deep sleep.

Wednesday went by slowly and without incident. The three of them spent pretty much all day inside the house, engaged in an excessively competitive Mario Kart marathon that resulted in Dean and Chloe sulking off to bed after getting their asses handed to them by Roman. Chloe was determined to take advantage of the Florida sunshine while she was there, so Thursday afternoon found her trying to find some peace basking in the sun's rays.

"Hey Chlo, how's the water?" Roman asked from somewhere behind her.

"Wouldn't know. Too busy bakin' myself in this oven you call a place to live."

"Y'know, it's really not good for you to sit out in the sun like this," she heard Dean say. "Sun's bad for you."

"So's Jack in the Box, but you didn't have an issue with talkin' me into eatin' it last night," she said, not bothering to open her eyes to give him a look.

Moments later she felt herself being lifted up out of her chair. She had about half a second to scream as she sailed through the air before landing in the deep end of the pool with a loud splash. "Ambrose!" she sputtered as she surfaced. "I'm gonna fuckin' kill you!"

"Don't look at me," he said between fits of laughter. "Rome got to you before I could."

Chloe turned her glare at Roman, who was grinning cheekily at her. "You're supposed to be the nice one!"

"It doesn't take much to be the nice one when that's your competition," he chuckled, jerking his head in Dean's direction and offering a hand to help her out of the pool.

"Hey! I'm right here, jackass."

"Yeah, and it was like, seventy percent your idea."

"Well this is a hundred percent mine," Chloe said, grabbing Roman's forearm and kicking off of the side of the pool to pull him in with her. She took savage pleasure at the look of shock on his face as he fell, smirking at him as he came back up. "Don't play with fire if you don't wanna get burned, big man."

"I deserved that."

"Yeah, Rome, serves you right!"

Chloe raised an eyebrow at Dean as she pulled herself out. "Don't think I've forgotten what he said 'bout it being your idea."

"Seventy percent," he clarified, throwing up his hands in defense.

"Consider that thirty percent of the payback."

She grabbed her towel off of the lounge chair to dry herself off, and Dean took the opportunity to slide into it. "We should go out tonight. There's a pretty cool bar nearby, we can walk over, have a few drinks, find you some guy lookin' for a fling..."

"Goin' out and pickin' up strangers in bars is your thing, not mine," she said with an eyeroll.

"You oughta try it, it's a good way to get over stuff."

"I don't got anythin' to get over," she said carefully, avoiding his eyes as she dried off her hair. Lie. She _shouldn't_ have anything to get over – mostly it was just a lot of sex in hotel rooms. And that one date, if that's what it was gonna be called.

He scoffed. "Don't gimme that crap, I know you better'n-"

She was glad when Roman interrupted him by coming over and violently shook his head, flinging water from his hair onto both of them. "You comin' out with us tonight, baby girl?"

Well, maybe not that glad. "Like I was just tellin' Dean-"

"I promise I won't let him push you at any tall, dark, and handsome strangers unless you ask first. Just come out and drink with us." When she still looked skeptical he added, "I'll buy."

"Hey, thanks Rome!"

"Not you, just for her."

Dean pouted while Chloe pursed her lips, considering. "Fine. I'm probably gonna regret this, but fine."

"This is the _besssst_ night!" Chloe gushed, dropping back into the booth next to Roman and throwing an arm around his shoulder.

True to his word, Roman had picked up her tab (and Dean's too, after some grumbling about "that time back in Philly"), and somewhere around her fourth Mai Tai she'd forgotten why she hadn't wanted to come out in the first place.

The boys nodded their drunken agreement, and Dean reached across the table to take a gulp of her drink. "Dean!" she shrieked indignantly, smacking his hand.

"I'm just doin' you a favor, you've already had more'a these'n I can count an' you're gonna be fuckin' miserable on the plane flight tomorrow if you're hungover."

"Tha's a problem for future Chloe," she scoffed, snatching her drink back.

"I'll remind you of that when we're takin' off an' you complain about your head."

She stuck her tongue out and rested her head on Roman's shoulder. "You. You're gonna fuckin' kick _ass_ on Sunday an' get that stupid briefcase. You're way better'n those guys."

"I'm gonna tell Ziggler you said that," Dean smirked.

"I love Dolph but Roman can kick his ass any day of the week."

Roman laughed. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, baby girl. If I win it I'll give you the honor of carrying it around for me at airports."

"Carry it your fuckin' self." She took another slurp from her drink and turned to Dean. "An' you, you're gonna kick that scrawny little fucker's ass an' make him wish he'd never messed with you."

"Hell yeah I am!" Dean said vehemently, clinking his beer bottle against her glass violently. "Little? You know he's got like nine inches and sixty pounds on you, right?"

"We're not talkin' about me! We're talkin' about you, and the fact that botha my boys are gonna kick names and take ass this weekend!"

Roman and Dean exchanged a look before taking her drink away from her. "Come on sweetheart, it's time to go home," he said softly, smiling and pushing her out of the booth.

Chloe pouted. "You can't make m- okay, maybe you can," she said resentfully as Dean scooped her up like a doll, propping one of her arms around his shoulder while Roman closed out the tab. Roman put her other arm around his shoulder and the three of them lumbered down the street back to Roman's house. "I love you guys so much," she slurred, squeezing their arms and grinning broadly. "I really needed this."

"Anytime, Chlo," Roman said, knocking his head against hers.


	9. Turns Out I Don't Go Down That Easily

**A/N:** It lives! Seriously though, sorry for sucking and not updating for so long, I went through cycles of life happening and a lack of knowing what to write when it wasn't. My original plan probably only carries us through one more chapter before I cap this off, at which point I might do one shots or a sequel or something else entirely (I've had kind of a thing for Punk recently...), who knows! Definitely not me, because I'm dreadful at schedule management. Let me know your thoughts on that in reviews if you so desire, and I will do my damndest to not let another seven months go by before finishing the next chapter (and probably the story). Huge thanks to **Raquel the writer** , **angelsdee327** , **MsConCon** , **Fox1992** , **RADex** , and **beautifultragedyxxx** for the reviews on chapter 8, and sorry I made y'all wait so long 3

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Thanks to Roman and Dean forcing water down her throat before letting her go to bed the night before, Chloe didn't feel too bad as they caught a mid-afternoon flight to Columbus. They got in around 9 and went straight to their hotel room, falling asleep almost immediately.

Saturday was a long day of media and appearances for Dean and Roman and planning meetings for Chloe. The lack of a huge metal deathtrap that had to be raised and lowered meant less pressure than Elimination Chamber, but Nate still insisted that they go over every second, and she was tired and cranky by the time he finally let her go. She drove back to the hotel room and found Dean and Roman there, with a pile of pizza boxes. "Come eat!" Dean said, as Roman scooted over so that she could sit on the couch.

She plopped down heavily next to him and leaned back, closing her eyes. "Long day?" Roman asked sympathetically.

"Not as long as it coulda been," she said, sitting up to rifle through the food. "Seriously you guys, who the fuck gets pineapple on pizza?"

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," Roman said, waving the slice he was holding in her direction.

She eyed him warily. "Reigns, if you wanna keep that pizza in your hand instead of on the ground keep it away from me."

Dean took the opportunity to snatch the pizza out of Roman's hand, devouring half of it at once. Roman scowled at him. "Dude, what the fuck?"

"You 'ere closer'n the box," Dean said through a mouthful of food. Chloe snickered as Roman shoved Dean off of the couch. "Hey, not cool man!"

Dean was pointing out that there was plenty left in the box when there was a knock at their door. "Prob'ly someone tellin' us to shut the fuck up 'cause you two can't keep the volume level under a seven," Chloe sighed, getting up to get the door. Her face fell when she opened it and saw Seth standing there.

"Uh. Hey," he said, attempting a smile.

She sighed warily, too tired for a fight. "What do you want, Seth?"

By then Dean and Roman had come over and were standing behind her. Seth rubbed the back of his neck. "Man, you guys make me feel like I'm facing down the mob or something." When they didn't respond he sighed. "Can I talk to you?"

"Voluntarily putting yourself in a situation where you're outnumbered? I'm surprised," Roman said darkly. He turned to Dean and they had a silent conversation, seemingly coming to a consensus when they nodded together.

Dean put a hand on Chloe's shoulder. "We're okay with it if you are, but say the word an' we'll get ridda him."

"You don't have to get rid of me, I'll just go on my own." Seth bit his lip, looking at the three of them sadly. Chloe hated seeing that look on his face, and she hated that she felt that way. She stepped back a few feet, giving him space to come into the room, and he gave them a grateful smile. It turned into a grimace when Dean slammed the door shut behind him.

Dean dragged a chair over to the table and threw himself back down on the couch. Roman sat next to him and Chloe sat on his other side, back a little bit – she sensed that this was a conversation that was mostly between the guys. Dean and Roman stared at Seth, both of them stone-faced.

Seth sat down across from them and swallowed. "You guys aren't gonna make this easy on me, huh."

Dean laced his fingers behind his head and quirked an eyebrow at him. "What exactly gave you the idea that you did anything to deserve easy?"

"You've already made it pretty clear that you're uncomfortable," Roman growled. "Why don't you tell us what the hell you want before we lose our patience?"

"Okay, okay," Seth said, leaning his elbows on his knees and taking a deep breath. "I don't really know how to start this so I'm just gonna talk. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I betrayed you guys. It was the worst thing I've ever done and I've regretted it every day since."

"It seems to have worked out pretty well for you," Dean said lazily, his eyes darting over to the championship belt that was sitting on one of the beds.

Seth followed his glance and winced when he saw the title. "I hate that thing. I thought it would make me feel better when I got it. Like all of the fucked up, awful things I did would maybe mean something if I got the strap. But it just makes me sick every time I look at it."

"Talk is cheap, little brother," Roman said. The term of endearment sounded more like an insult. "Spitting a few pretty apologies doesn't exactly make up for anything you did."

Nobody else seemed like they were going to do it, so Chloe asked the question that she had had since that first car ride with Seth, where he had first seemed like he was more than just a self serving asshole. "Why'd you do it?"

Seth met her eyes and she saw the same sadness that was there every time Dean and Roman had come up between them. "I... was afraid. And weak. We were getting so big, so popular, and I knew that you guys were going to be huge stars." He smiled faintly, and Chloe felt Dean bristle beside her. "Hunter figured out that I was worried about the future and started whispering in my ear, reinforcing everything bad I was thinking. I'm not going to say I'm not talented, but Roman's a powerhouse with generations of legends standing around him, and Dean has this... charisma, that makes people want to root for him, and I'm just... pretty good."

"You don't think we would have stood with you?" Dean said in a low voice, his agitation rising the more Seth talked.

"I... I didn't know. Hunter knows exactly what to say to get to you, he didn't get to where he is by accident. He said that if I switched sides and joined up with the Authority, that my future would be guaranteed and they'd make me a champion-"

"We would have given you _everything_!" Dean yelled, standing up and taking a step towards Seth. "You think it fuckin' mattered to us which one of us was the champion? We were _brothers_ , you fuckin' moron! That wasn't just a word. We could have conquered the fuckin' world together, we would have had your back no matter what you wanted to do! An' we thought you felt the same way, until you proved without a shadow of a doubt that you didn't." His voice broke at the end and he dropped back onto the couch, looking at the ground and running his fingers through his hair in agitation.

Seth looked at him sadly. "I wanted to. I want to. I should have known that. But I was unsure of myself and terrified, and Hunter knew exactly how to exploit that. Not that I'm trying to pawn all of this off on him. It never would have happened if I wasn't so caught up in my own head in the first place."

The four of them were quiet for a long time after that, until Roman let out a deep breath. "That sounds great and all, but what's your plan here? I know you weren't dumb enough to think you could just make this little speech and have us welcome you back with open arms."

"Well, a guy can dream, but no, I didn't think that." Seth jerked his head in the direction of the title belt. "I don't want that thing anymore. Not right now, anyway. All it does is remind me of every time I've fucked up since last June. I'll drop it to Dean on Sunday. We still have to give them a good match, we're the main event and we can't let the fans down, but it'll be yours in the end." Dean finally looked up at him at that, disbelief written all over his face. Seth continued. "And Roman... Kane can't win that contract. We need to keep that belt out of the hands of the Authority. You get the contract – they're planning something during the match to keep you from winning, I don't know what, but now you can get some kind of backup to counter it. Dean gets the championship, and the three of us work together to make sure that it stays with us and away from them. Like it should have been in the first place."

They fell silent again - Dean desperately wringing his hands, Roman giving Seth a hard stare, Seth looking back with what appeared to be sadness and maybe a little bit of pleading, and Chloe not sure where to look. The room was so still that she was startled when Dean jumped up and grabbed his jacket. "If this all happens like you say it will, then I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow. But for now? You'd better not be here when I get back," he said to Seth, his voice shaking despite his best tough-guy attempt, and then he stormed out of the room.

Roman looked rapidly between Chloe and the door, clearly torn. "Go," she said softly. "I'll be fine." Roman squeezed her shoulder and left in a hurry.

"I owe you an apology too," Seth said once the door had closed. "I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I just got scared, everyone knows you're friends with Ambro- with Dean, and if I acted friendly toward you I was afraid they might stop trusting me and take everything away."

"Yeah, 'cuz you're obviously really enjoyin' the position you're in," she frowned, grabbing a slice of the pizza she hadn't gotten a chance to touch earlier.

The corner of his mouth twitched. "Not exactly, but I'd already spent so much time with them and didn't really feel like I had another option."

She gave him a scrutinizing look. "Even Steph though you were bein' an asshole, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Like... If Stephanie thinks you're outta line, you've _really_ fucked up."

"I know."

Chloe let out a deep breath. "I... look, I dunno what's gonna go down tomorrow. I wanna trust you, but the reality is that I've only known you for a coupla weeks, so it's prob'ly best if you leave before Dean and Roman get back. Like he said, if things go down tomorrow like you say... we can talk then."

He dipped his head in acknowledgement. "I can live with that." He got up to leave, turning back towards her when he was halfway out the door. "I won't let you down, I promise."

"I hope so," she whispered, her heart squeezing sharply. When he was gone she grabbed her phone and stuck her earbuds in, preparing for a long night.

Sometime later she was jostled awake by movement beside her. She felt the headphones being removed from her ears, followed by a snort. "Have you really been listenin' to Wonderwall? On repeat?"

"Don't you fuckin' judge me Ambrose, or else I'll tell the whole locker room about your Aqua phase," she mumbled, rolling onto her side.

"You wouldn't."

"Wanna try me?"

Dean sighed, settling down on the other half of the bed. "Nah, not really."

Chloe opened an eye and saw Dean with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. The shower was running, so she figured Roman was in there. "You doin' okay?" she asked softly.

He grunted. "I didn't throw any punches and Rome kept me from drinkin' too much, I think that qualifies."

"Hey." Another grunt. "Nothin's really changed, ok? Either way you still go out and kick his ass tomorrow, and if he was tellin' the truth it's like the cherry on top of the ass-kicking sundae."

"Yeah, I guess," he muttered. "Cherry's always my favorite part, though."

She sighed heavily. "Mine too."


End file.
